Five Plus Two Makes Seven
by TwiceKnightley
Summary: This is a follow up to And Then They Were Five, revisiting the newly formed family eighteen months on and things have changed considerably. As always where Molly and Charles are concerned things are never simple and so the drama continues...
1. Chapter 1

**Thank you to everybody who read and reviewed And Then They Were Five, your responses were amazing and totally overwhelming. Sorry this follow up has taken so long but if you've read my stories, you'll know I like to get them finished before I start to post them. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this and hopefully it will answer a few questions from the previous story.**

"Samuel Andrew James, you'd better not be doing what I think you're doing," Molly called from the kitchen, listening to the giggling coming from the hallway. As if coping with school holidays wasn't hard enough, she was trying to get the house ready for a guest and prepare a shopping list for Lucy's birthday party next Saturday. Add to that, her final OU assignment had to be emailed to her mentor by lunchtime tomorrow. "If I come out there and find out you're at it again, I'm telling you, there'll be big trouble and I mean BIG trouble!"

"I'm not, honestly Mum." Sam's innocent tone didn't fill her with confidence, especially as it was followed by an uncontrolled giggle. The fact that Pip was with him and also giggling uncontrollably was not a good sign. The boys could get up to more mischief than even the little bleeders on their worst day.

The sound of Lucy's voice joining the soundtrack coming from the hallway brought Molly to her feet. "Bad boys, big tubble, big tubble." She sing songed as she trundled her truck across the hall and through the kitchen doorway almost ploughing Molly down. "Bad boys Mummy. Sift way" as she rammed Molly again to get her to move out of the way. She could be very single-minded and nothing got in her way when she had a plan which it appeared she did.

Stepping to the side, shifting out of the way as requested, she let Lucy pass her in to the kitchen. The giggles were still emanating from the hallway as Molly stepped through the door. Well, Sam hadn't been lying when he said _he_ wasn't doing anything but he had certainly had a hand in the current situation. He was sitting on the bottom step, watching a red faced giggling Pip sitting astride Manny, hands clutching the poor dog's collar as he rode him around the hallway. Manny, short for Mansfield named after their colleague due both to his ginger hair and the vast quantities of sausages (well any food really) he could eat, was the family's St Bernard.

When they eventually got around to discussing pets Charles agreed with Sam, it needed to be a 'proper' dog, not one of those yappy ankle biters. There was no way he was taking a Chihuahua for a walk in public and so the hunt began. They had visited the Animal Shelter every weekend for months, looking on the websites and checking out any that looked even remotely suitable. Then, one week last October, there he was, a gorgeous ball of fluff, sadly given up for adoption because he was getting too big. It seemed fitting that he should join their pick 'n' mix family and so, five became seven. The seventh member of their family was currently in the kitchen giving out plaintive cries, trying to attract attention.

Torn between admonishing Sam and Pip or going to rescue Kitty, Molly turned on her heel, calling over her shoulder, "I'm not finished with you two yet and Pip, get off that poor dog!" "But he likes it Mum." replied Pip, his giggle accompanied by a gruff bark. Kitty did indeed need rescuing. She was currently being hoisted in the air by Lucy who had her arms wrapped around the cat's middle leaving her back legs dangling on the floor. The aim presumably to transfer Kitty from her quiet corner of the kitchen to the wooden truck presently parked by the sink.

They had been adopted by Kitty on the same day they brought Manny home. Charles had let the big dog out into the back garden when they got home and left him to explore his new territory. They had left the back door open so that he could come in when he was ready. The boys had been watching over him, enthralled by their big friend. What they didn't see was the tiny grey kitten who nipped into the house and settled herself under the kitchen table where she managed to stay hidden until the family sat down to eat. Unfortunately, walking across Charles's bare feet was not the best way to introduce herself. Molly still chuckled at the memory of a 6'2" trained killer screaming like a girl, pushing his chair back with such force it fell over and declaring, "If we've got mice, we're taking the dog back and getting a cat!" Discovering it _was_ a cat, albeit a very small one, he decided it must belong to one of the neighbours and, back to his calm organised self, dragged the boys, dog and kitten from door to door enquiring if anybody had lost a ball of fur. Molly had refused to go with them, instead staying at home with her fingers crossed keeping an eye on Lucy who kept looking under the table shouting, "titty!" By the time they returned an hour later the kitten had been named and the James family now had a dog and a cat.

Grunting and shuffling, Lucy manhandled the cat into the truck, giving her a sturdy pat on the head. "What're you doing with Kitty, Lucy locket?" "Do wart. Bad Titty!" Lucy had grown into a sturdy little toddler with a surprisingly deep voice. The cat, taking advantage of Lucy's distraction had made an escape bid, sadly not getting far as her tail was taken in a firm grip and she was pulled back into the truck. "Be dud, Titty. Do wart." The cat, obviously realising she risked injury if she tried to escape again, chose to settle herself in the truck and accept her fate. She was going for a walk apparently. Manoeuvring the wooden truck around Molly's legs, narrowly missing the kitchen table, Lucy stumped her way back out of the kitchen. Shaking her head at the antics of her family, Molly dropped back down in to her seat at the table, she couldn't believe how much the children had grown in the past 18 months.

When Molly had joined the family, following the deaths of Beth and Andrew, the household had been in mourning. The children hadn't understood what was happening only that their mum and dad had vanished. Sam too was going through a difficult transition, moving from living with his mum to living with Molly and his dad.

The first few months had been difficult for everyone as they settled into their new roles in the family. Molly had applied for and been granted a conditional discharge with effect from 1st February which meant she had to return to Catterick for a month, trying to organise her down time so that she could be with the children. Charles had applied for a training position at the Specialist Weapons School, Warminster which was only 40 minutes commute time from Bath. Sam had returned to school and seemed to be dealing with his mum's absence well. They soon found out that wasn't the case when he began to have nightmares.

Molly had been home for the weekend. Gina and Max were still in residence helping out with the little ones for the time being. Charles should have been home but had been delayed for some reason. The children had all been in bed for several hours and the adults were relaxing in the snug when they heard the thud, followed by shouts. Molly was first into the boys' bedroom. Guided by the nightlight she discovered a sobbing Pip sitting on the floor rubbing his bottom, " bugger, bugger, bugger." and a contrite Sam curled up into a ball in the top bunk, sobbing, "Sorry, I'm sorry Pip, I'm sorry." Trying to decide which boy to comfort first she was relieved to see Gina nip into the room and scoop up Pip. Dilemma solved, Molly scaled the side of the bunks and clambered in with Sam, taking him in her arms. "It's okay sweetie. It's okay. Can you tell me what happened?" "I had a dream. Daddy's gone to be with mum in heaven." Huge tears rolled down his cheeks. "I was crying and Pip tried to climb up and give me a hug but he slipped. He's hurt and it's my fault. Will Pip and Lucy go away now too?"

Drawing him in against her body, wrapping him tightly in her arms, she tried to unpick what he'd told her. Addressing the most immediate concern she reassured him, "Pip's fine, I think he's just going to have a bit of a sore bum for a while. Why would he and Lucy have to go away?" "Simon says swearing is bad and if you swear you go away. Mum swore at him, she called him a bloody bastard, and now she's gone to heaven like Aunty Beth and Uncle Andrew. Dad was swearing last night about a squaddie and he's gone." His slender frame shook in her arms. If she ever got her hands on that 'bloody bastard' she'd make sure he went away. Rubbing a soothing hand up and down his back she calmly tried to put his mind at rest.

"Your mum isn't in heaven Scamp, she's in America. She went on a plane." She didn't want to tell him he could talk to her or that he'd see her soon as Rebecca had been very reluctant to maintain any contact with her son. "I'll help you write a letter to her tomorrow." Kissing him gently on the cheek she brushed his damp curls back.

"And your Dad will be home soon, he just got held up in a meeting." Bringing his face up so that he was looking at her and could see she was sincere, she continued, "You know swearing doesn't really make people go away don't you? I swear all the time and I'm still here. Simon was just being a weapons grade co… complete idiot." She caught herself just in time. "Okay? We're all here with you, so if you have any more bad dreams, tell me okay." Manoeuvring to the edge of the bunk she dropped agilely to the floor before bestowing a kiss and pulling the covers up over his shoulders.

Rebecca's absence from her son's life had been the cause of several arguments in the James house. Charles wanted to go back to court and cut off all remaining access, citing abandonment. Molly playing Devil's advocate had posed that what if Rebecca wanted to contact Sam but for one reason, or one person or another wasn't able to. She felt they should keep their options open for Sam's sake.

At the beginning of February when Molly finally came home to stay, Gina and Max had returned to their home in Lake Garda. They had been greatly missed but Molly had started, what became a regular event. The whole family gathered around the kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon and Skyped with them and with the Dawes family. Pip and Sam loved the Skype time and Lucy would bounce excitedly and squeal whenever Dave came on the screen which perturbed Charles a bit. "I swear her second word is going to be Dave,", her first being mama.

Things had settled down and at Easter the little family had travelled over to Italy to see Gina and Max. While there, Charles had raised the question of marriage. "It would be good if we all had the same surname." "Is that the only reason you want to marry me?" Molly had pretended to be rather indignant, loving to watch him squirm.

Knowing that she wanted nothing more than to marry him, she had relented and they'd decided on a summer wedding in Bath. It would be a simple registry office wedding with close friends and family followed by a reception back at the house.

Brought back to the present by a bump and a voice shouting, "man down, man down", Molly was once more on her feet. If this resulted in another run to the A & E she's do away with the little bugger herself and save them all the hassle. Skidding to a halt at the bottom of the stairs she was amused to see Pip hanging upside down below the big dog, his legs still wrapped firmly around his steed. "How…" she began before noticing Pip had a length of cord, was that a tie back from the dining room curtain, fastened from one ankle to the other, around the dog's stomach, securing him in place, which meant instead of falling off he had slid to the side and under Manny. Tears of laughter falling from her eyes, she dashed them away and went to the rescue before the big dog decided to sit or lie down. Sam rolled on the floor clutching his stomach, being no help at all while Pip kept wriggling and giggling. The sound of wheels and flash of fur alerted her to the arrival of Lucy who squatted on her haunches, looked at Pip and asked seriously, "sappened?" before shaking her head, muttering, "big tubble" and trundling on her way.

Finally releasing Pip, god knows who had tied those knots but she refused to cut it because it was a tie back from the dining room, Molly looked at her watch. Shit it was only 10:53. "Right, enough. Into the snug and watch a DVD until lunch, then we'll head to the park this afternoon and LUCY JAMES PUT THAT BLOODY CAT DOWN" The only response she got was a shriek from the cat and a grumpy, "Bad Titty n'way" as Lucy, minus cat and truck stomped past her into the snug. "Lilo Sich, Sam" she called on her way. The Lilo and Stitch movie was currently her favourite.

Pushing back her hair, Molly was turning to head back to the kitchen and her list of jobs when the doorbell rang and chaos reigned once more with Manny barking as he ran for the front door. Grabbing him by the collar she hauled backwards, he was almost big enough for her to ride, and wrenched open the door with her other hand. Her first view from her semi bent position was a pair or camouflage clad legs and regulation army boots, moving upwards over well-honed muscles to meet a pair of dark brown laughing eyes. "Need a hand there darling?" Releasing the door and the dog, she lunged forward, throwing her arms around him and dragging him in. "My hero" she laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

Elvis Harte stood in the hallway, totally surrounded and outmanoeuvred by a 5'3" dot of a woman, a huge dog, and three children but totally ignored by the grey fur ball who had strolled from the kitchen to investigate the commotion, taken one disdainful look and headed up the stairs, presumably to leave him a present of a hair ball on his bed like last time he visited. Somehow, that cat knew he was a dog person and exacted her revenge every way possible. Managing to detach Lucy from his right leg, he lifted her up in to his arms, grinning when she planted a noisy sloppy kiss on his cheek. Dropping his own kiss on Molly's cheek he eyed her up and down, "Looking a bit frazzled there Mrs James, good thing I arrived when I did." His cheeky grin saved him from a sarcastic answer. Lifting a reluctant Lucy from his arms, Molly shooed the children and Manny into the garden. "Give me five minutes peace to catch up with Uncle Elvis, Okay?" Catching Sam looking at his watch she sighed, "make that some peace, no specific amount of time. I'll come and get you when lunch is ready."

Pointing him in the direction of the snug, she quickly made two cups of coffee and grabbed the broken remains of yesterday's attempt to make biscuits and headed back to join him. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but what are you doing here? Charles didn't say he was expecting you. Is everything okay?" Having met Elvis on that fateful Christmas eighteen months ago they had formed a relaxed, easy going friendship. Elvis often came to Molly for the sort of advice he couldn't ask Charles about. "Is Laura Okay?" "She's fine, growing like a weed. Deb has taken her to Spain for a couple of weeks so I thought I'd come and spend some leave under your feet if that's okay."

"Of course it's okay, you're always welcome here, you know that. In fact, you can help me out this afternoon if you would. I promised the little buggers a trip over to the park but I've got an assignment to get finished. I was going to do it tonight when Charles gets back but it would be good to have some time this afternoon as well, just in case." Molly was studying for a BSc Honours Degree in Nursing Practice through the Open University. "No problem, how about I take them for a burger or pizza first and give you even more time. I'll even take Manny. Pip can always ride him home." Laughing at her expression, he leaned back with his cup of coffee, eyeing the tin of broken biscuits before reaching in and taking a piece. "What's with the broken biscuits? I remember when my gran used to talk about buying broken biscuits from the corner shop because they were cheap. Charlie tightening the purse strings?" "They're the only things the kids won't eat so I have to break a few when I'm baking so I and Charles can get some." Their shared laughter was a release after the chaos of the morning.

"How's the world of Special Forces treating you? Been anywhere exciting?" Molly would never regret giving up the army to look after the children but she still missed it. Missed the camaraderie, the excitement, the organisation and routine. Even the disgusting jobs like cleaning up a squaddie's manky blistered feet. "Oh you know, so so. There's talk of another mission in Syria but it won't necessarily be my team. To be honest, it's losing its thrill. I was hoping to talk to Charlie about it while I'm here. Had a bit of a close call on the last mission. Spunky took a bullet to the thigh, he's doing okay, but it made me think. What about Laura if I catch the bullet. I've got her in my will but I don't know if the army will support her with us not being official."

Reaching across, Molly squeezed his hand, "you'll make the right choice whatever it is and if you do decide to jack it in, I could do with a full time Nanny." Giving a derisive snort, Elvis stood, placing his cup on the table, and headed for the stairs, snatching up his kit bag and Bergen from the hall as he passed. "I'll just dump this lot and get changed then we'll be out of your hair.

Watching him go, Molly could understand why Charles thought so much of him. He put on such an act of this lothario Essex boy when really he was a kind, helpful man who gave his heart for keeps. The woman who finally won him would be very lucky.

He had been best man at their wedding, and as he was on leave the whole month prior had practically taken over the arrangements. Charles had jokingly called him the Wedding Planner which Molly thought was hilarious and made the two of them watch 'Father of the Bride' with Martin Short as the wedding planner. Elvis had threatened them with swans as revenge. As it happened, it was perfect. Molly let her mind wander, remembering that day last July.

The house had been heaving with family, every bedroom filled to capacity and then some. Gina and Max along with Elvis and Dave and Belinda had taken the three rooms on the second floor, Jade, Bella and Lilly had been put on air beds in the playroom, Martin, Steven and Paul went in with Sam and Pip and Nan took over Lucy's room. Little Lucy locket had been delighted to share a room with her parents, chattering in to the small hours to her captive audience. The night before the wedding Elvis had taken Charles, Max and Dave to stay in a hotel, saying they needed man time to explain husbandly duties to Charles and it was bad luck for Charlie to see the bride before the wedding anyway. What he really meant was they wanted to escape the fussing women and over excited children.

The morning of the wedding had started as a typical British summer day – dull, wet and overcast. Molly wasn't bothered though. The wedding was indoors at the registry office and they had a bloody big tent thing put up in the garden for the reception, any overspill would easily fit in the house. She had chosen a simple cream shift dress which Elvis had said made her look taller. Yes, he'd even helped her choose her dress as her mum was in London and Gina was in Italy. The only other person she would have wanted to help her was her best friend Jackie and she was now in Australia. Since joining up most of her friends tended to be male, with the exception of Jackie. So, Elvis was designated stand in maid of honour until Jade got there to take over on the day.

Her mum, Nan and Gina had helped her get ready and Jade had done her hair. Bella had taken charge of Lilly and Lucy and Paul had the boys organised when the cars arrived. They were meeting the men at the registry office. Charles, Elvis and Max had already gone into the room but Dave had waited to walk her in. Sam and Pip had nipped smartly off, quickly followed by the Dawes boys to join the men and Gina took Nan and Belinda through leaving Molly with her dad, three sisters and Lucy who looked adorable in a pale lemon smocked dress and white ankle socks with white Mary Janes. As they walked through the door, Elvis had nudged Charles to focus his attention. He had stared at the beautiful woman walking towards him and felt his heart stop for just a moment. This amazing woman, the mother of his children was going to be his wife. She was agreeing to spend the rest of her life with him. How the hell did he get to be so lucky? Molly in turn was watching Charles as she walked past the rows of empty chairs towards the small group at the front of the room. She didn't see any of that, her eyes were on the man she loved, admiring how handsome he looked in the dark grey suit, the burgundy tie standing out against his snowy white shirt. The other men and boys were similarly dressed as they had decided against having a military wedding choosing civvies over uniform.

The service itself passed in a daze for Molly, repeating her vows automatically, not able to draw her eyes away from Charles's. As he'd finally leaned in to kiss her, he quietly whispered, "I'll always want you to be the last thing I see." Her whispered "ditto" brought tears to his eyes. Signing the marriage register had been quick but they had posed for a few photos with various combinations of family. Paul, who was doing a photography course had volunteered to take the photos but Molly said she wanted ALL her family in the pictures so they had hired someone. The end result had been a selection of formal and informal pictures taken during and after the ceremony and back at the house.

The lads from 2 section and some of Molly's mates from Catterick, along with a few officer friends of Charles had been the only army presence at the reception. The rest of the guests had been made up of old school friends and neighbours including the infamous Gilly from number 19 and one surprise guest, George, Charles's ex father in law. He had come to say goodbye to Sam as he was emigrating to Canada to live with his other daughter Lauren. He had been shocked and apologetic for interrupting the wedding but Charles, after a nod from Molly, had asked him to stay and spend time with Sam. It had been a fantastic afternoon, evening and in some cases, early morning, catered by a local company who were just starting out. The food had been amazing and they even provided the music which was a relief to Molly as a few days earlier she'd caught Charles going through his CD collection.

Molly Dawes had been really happy with her life as part of the James family but now, having the James name and Charles's ring on her finger she thought she couldn't get any happier. She'd been wrong. A taxi arrived to whisk them away to a luxury hotel for two nights and Molly had done the rounds of hugs and well wishes. She was just about to slide into the back seat when Sam, with Pip in tow had shouted, "Have fun, Mum," echoed by, "yeah, have fun mummy" Turning to look at Charles, tears of happiness overflowing she whispered, "Mum". That had been the first time the boys had called her mum and now, a year on it still gave her a thrill to hear them say it.

Pulled from her reminiscing by the thunder of feet, furred and shoed, she watched the boys and dog race through to the hallway. Elvis followed at a more sedate pace holding hands with Lucy. "Do you want the buggy? She gets fed up with walking after a bit." "Nah, it's alright. I've carried packs heavier than her." Grinning he followed after the boys. Walking to the door to see them off, Molly laughed to see the 6' man, holding hands with a curly headed toddler while trying to control a pony sized dog and two excited boys. "Good luck." she shouted after them.

Molly had jogged up to the second floor to double check the spare room was ready and that Elvis had towels in his room. They had stopped calling that room the 'spare' room as he stayed with them so often. He even left the odd item of clothing in the drawers for emergency stop overs. Happy that everything was fine, she did a mental tick and went downstairs to carry on with the next item on her to do list. Her assignment. Molly hated doing assignments; it reminded her of being back at school, or what she remembered from the infrequent times she attended. She was currently trying to complete the final module of her first year.

Nobody had been surprised when Molly started climbing the walls with boredom. The house was cleaned to within an inch of its life, laundry was done the minute dirty clothing was discarded and Pip and Lucy attended every toddler group session she could find. She'd even started dropping in at Gilly's for coffee. Charles had nearly blown a fuse when she told him where she'd been and she'd had a great time winding him up until finally admitting that Gilly was actually running a small B&B for people on the Jane Austen trail, hence all the couples coming and going every night. She didn't make it commonly known around the neighbourhood in case she was breaking any rules, some residents were very precious about the crescent, and didn't advertise, getting her guests through friends of friends and personal recommendations instead. Laughing, Molly had sworn Charles to secrecy.

Initially Charles had suggested Molly sign up for the local Territorials but, much as she loved the army she didn't want to do anything which might take her away from the children. It had been her mum who suggested the Open University; she had recently completed a Certificate HE course in Education to help with her teaching assistant job. Not really sure, Molly had talked it over with Charles who thought it was a fantastic idea. Pip went to a local nursery five afternoons a week so Molly was able to study when Lucy was down for her nap and in the evenings when Charles was playing with them. She stopped when the children were in bed so she could have some alone time with Charles but he always made sure she had at least half a day to her studies over the weekend. The dining room, which was only used for formal occasions had been designated her study when not in use. She'd chosen a nursing degree to build on her experience as a CMT and hoped, by the time Lucy was in full time school she might be ready to get some practical nursing experience.

She was thoroughly enjoying the course even though she struggled with large assignments like this, mainly because it kept her chained to the desk for long periods of time but it did challenge her mentally while the children challenged her physically so she felt she had a real purpose in her life.

The change of role for Charles had been difficult at first, moving from active duty with the threat of deployment always there to a training role. It didn't take long though for him to start seeing results in his trainees. At home too, things were more relaxed. Molly was home full time and he was home most evenings so they felt like they were starting to live as a proper family with the children. He'd missed a lot of that with Sam, first with deployments and then after the divorce when he'd moved back into barracks, only getting home once or twice a month for the weekend. Now he could help Sam with his homework, read Pip and Lucy bedtime stories and play endless games of make believe with all three. He even enjoyed taking the dog with him for his morning or evening run. His life finally felt right.

Thinking of Charles as she headed into the dining room, Molly checked the time on her phone and looked to see if he'd sent any messages. There was a brief WhatsApp message saying, 'Traffic not too bad, just stopping for coffee before driving into the City. Love you.' Charles had set off just before 07:00 to drive up to Glasgow.

Firing up the laptop, Molly opened the document she'd been working on and read through what she had written. "Thank god for spellchecker" she said aloud. All she had left to do was the conclusion of her work and that hopefully wouldn't take too long if she got her head down and her brain in gear.

Forty five minutes later, with a feeling of triumph, she pressed the send button and her assignment went winging its way to her tutor, too late to make any changes although she'd continue to have panics until she got her grade. She always did.

The house phone ringing caught her attention. There were three people who called the house phone, Gina, her Mum and her Nan. Other than them it would be sales calls or trouble. It was her mum. No trouble today thank goodness. Taking the phone with her into the kitchen, she switched the kettle on to make tea while she chatted. She'd found a renewed bond with her mum since becoming a mum herself. With the army it had always felt strange trying to talk to her mum or her Nan about what she did or about things that had happened. Now her mum understood exactly what she was talking about and could contribute, often giving sage advice. As she took her cup of tea to the table she was amused to see Kitty curled up in Lucy's wooden truck which had been left behind the door. "I hope you're all going to make it up here weekend after next for Lucy's party. You should see the outfit I got for her to wear." Molly snorted at the memory of Charles's face when she'd modelled her own outfit. "I got one almost the same for me and we've been practicing a dance. Honestly mum, she is so funny… you'd best warn Dad and the boys not to laugh though, she'd be devastated…. Yeah, Gina and Max fly in the Thursday before… yes Elvis will probably be here but tell Jade he's still too old for her. What? Is that Nan in the background? HIYA NAN! God no, she doesn't need to dress up. Urgh, I'm never going to get that picture out of my head now." Laughing she sipped her tea as she listened to her mum relay what she'd said to her Nan and laughed even louder at the reply.

They spent another twenty minutes catching up with news of the Dawes and James children and their adventures during the holidays. "I used to love the summer holidays, never wanted them to end. Now… roll on September. How the hell did you cope with all the little bleeders at home for six weeks, especially when dad was being a prannit?" She heard Belinda again relaying what she'd said to her Nan. "Why don't you put it on speaker phone so she can hear what I'm saying?... Just press the button with the megaphone on it… can you hear me now Nan?" Another ten minutes of three way chat and Molly glanced up at the clock alarmed to see it was nearly 15:00. Elvis and the kids had been gone for two and a half hours. Saying goodbye and returning the phone to its cradle Molly was deciding whether she should phone Elvis or just head down to the park to meet them when there was a loud banging at the door.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed, your comments are wonderful and I'm so happy you're enjoying the extended James family antics. Sorry about the cliff hanger - I'm not really, anyone who follows me on Twitter knows I'm a mischievous Kat :0) Just a short one this time but i hope it makes you laugh.**

"What the fuck?" Molly clamped a hand over her mouth and just stared, her eyes huge, trying to take everything in. Lucy deciding Molly needed help to understand what she was looking at frowned from her perch on Elvis's shoulders and pointed down, "Bad dod dot wet." It wasn't only Manny that was making puddles on the step. Pip looked as if he'd been for a swim, which in all likelihood he had and Elvis was sodden to mid-thigh and from the neck down his back. Looking at Sam, Molly was about to say thank god he was dry when Manny shook his huge furry body and soaked everyone. Stepping back out of the way she let the woeful looking group into the hall. "Do NOT move, any on you and that means you too dog." Moving quickly into the utility room she returned with a stack of towels fresh from the laundry that morning. "Strip," she ordered. "And then up those stairs into the bathroom. No one, and I mean NO ONE is treading stinky pond water up my stairs." a meaningful glower at Elvis had him popping Lucy on to her feet and peeling off his t-shirt. "Is that pee?" asked Molly taking in the stain. "Yep, little Miss Lucy here couldn't hold it in any longer." Trying very hard not to laugh at him, tears began trickling down her face. Pip seeing them grabbed her round the legs, "I'm sorry Mummy, it was an accident, honest." Poor little Pip thought she was upset. Giving him a hug she reassured him that she wasn't upset and bending, helped him undo his wet shoe laces. Unfazed by the company of others he stripped off the rest of his clothes and ran naked up the stairs. Sam, a more self-conscious ten year old was careful to turn his back on Molly before wrapping himself in a towel and heading after his brother. Seeing Elvis begin to undo his belt, she grabbed Lucy around the waist, pulling her under her arm like a rugby ball and followed the boys, calling over her shoulder, "I'll let you have the pleasure of drying the dog." before disappearing out of sight.

Making sure both boys showered while she popped a pungent Lucy into the bath she got their pyjamas ready. Sam looked shocked when he saw them, "it was an accident, honest Mum. Don't send us to bed without dinner." "When have you ever been sent to bed without dinner?" she began, only to stop when she saw the look of horror on his face. "I just thought you may as well put your pyjamas on instead of getting dressed so you can have more play time later. Sweetie. I'm not sending you to bed and you will NEVER miss dinner in this house, Okay?" Drying Lucy she had to fight to hold back the tears at what he'd just revealed. 'That bloody bastard, that fucking bloody bastard!' She wanted with all her heart to get her hands on that man, she'd show him how to treat women and children respectfully.

Settling the children at the kitchen table with milk and toast, she took two mugs of tea through to the snug, where she found Elvis. Plonking herself down beside him, she handed over one of the mugs. "Okay, out with it. What really happened? I take it you managed to have lunch before the disaster?" Nodding, Elvis ran his fingers through his damp hair and began to grin at the memory of the afternoon. "We had toasties from that tea room in the park, sat outside so Manny could eat with us. They were so well behaved, this old dear complimented me on my kids and a couple of young women were giving me the eye. Might have to borrow them regularly." Giving him a dig in the ribs to bring him back on track, she waited for him to focus. "The kids wanted to go in the play area so we spent a good while there. The young women were there too by the way. Anyway when the kids got bored we decided to go down to the duck pond. I know, I know. Big mistake." Molly who had past experience where the duck pond and Manny were concerned, couldn't help but feel sympathy for him. "That doesn't explain why you and Pip were so wet." Sighing he shook his head, his grin getting bigger. "Sam was holding Manny's lead; I thought it best to keep him on his lead with the ducks and all. Anyway everything was going fine until a particularly aggressive swan took a snap at his tail. Manny swung round to retaliate, side swiped Pip knocking him into the pond. I jumped in after him and Manny thinking it was a free for all jumped in with us. Honestly Molly, I was so glad those women weren't around then. By the time we were all back on dry land we looked a real sorry state and I thought I was going to have to go to the A&E with them," "Been there got the t-shirt" Molly interjected between sniggers. "Sam was laughing so hard I seriously thought he might damage something, Lucy was in hysterics, screaming 'bad Manny' and I won't even tell you what Pip said. Enough to say, you and Charlie really need to watch what you say in front of him. His vocabulary of swear words is really impressive."

By this time they were propped against each other holding their stomachs and laughing so hard it hurt. "Just to cap things off, Lucy decided she didn't want to walk any more so I put her on my shoulders. We'd only gone about twenty yards when I heard her say, 'oh noooo' and a suspicious warmth trickled down my back. The little bugger had peed on me!" His disgust at that memory was palpable which only served to make Molly laugh even more until tears and snot were running down her face. "Honestly Molly I don't know how you do it. The kids on their own I can manage, I think, or the dog on his own but all four together…" he looked so dejected at having been done in by three small children and a dog that Molly relented and shared some of her own horror stories. "I've been to A&E so many times with Pip; he's on first name terms with the nurses. I'm surprised I've not had social services at my door. His latest trick was getting a spring stuck up his nose. The spring by the way, came from Charles's alarm clock which he'd taken apart to 'find the beep'. Charles went ballistic until I reminded him who had bought him the 'real' toolkit for his fourth birthday. I suppose I should just be thankful it wasn't a chemistry kit."

Laughing together about Pip's accident prone antics they finished their tea and relaxed into a comfortable silence until a shout from the kitchen drew their attention. "Muuuum, Lucy stole my last piece of toast and won't give it back." "Lucy, give Sam his toast back." "Won't" came the muffled reply as she obviously had her mouth full. "Euw, she licked it!" Giving Elvis a look that said, "See" Molly made her way to the kitchen to sort out the latest imbroglio.

It was only later when everyone was finishing dinner that Elvis realised someone was missing, it had been such a mad hectic day he hadn't really had time to think. "Where's Charlie? I thought he's usually home for dinner." He gave Molly a questioning look. Shaking her head to stop any further questioning, she gave a vague answer, "He's gone on an errand up to Glasgow and should be back later."

"Where's Gasgow" asked Pip. "Glasgow," corrected Sam, "It's in Scotland, a long way away. Even further than Grandma Belinda's and Granddad Dave's" Hearing her favourite person mentioned, Lucy, who had been falling asleep in her meal, perked up, "Where Ganda Dave?" looking round as if expecting him to miraculously appear. "He's in East Ham with Grandma Belinda. Now, if you've finished eating go and wash your hands and faces and give your teeth a brush. You can have half an hour TV before bed. "Yay, Lilo Sich." shouted Lucy, disappearing out the door. "Bloody hell, not again" muttered Pip close on her heels followed by Sam giving a 'kids huh' sort of sigh and shrug towards the adults. Sam was allowed to stay up later that Pip and Lucy but he preferred to go to bed and read instead. Often reading aloud so Pip could share the stories.

Collecting the dirty dishes Molly quietly told Elvis, "I'll explain when they're in bed."

With the children safely tucked up in bed and hopefully on their way to the land of nod, Molly finished cleaning up the dinner mess, set the dishwasher off on its cycle before checking her emails. There was a message from her tutor to say he'd received her assignment and from the brief perusal he'd given it, she looked to be on track. Sending a quick reply she checked her phone. 21:10. she'd had a message from Charles at 16:00 to say he was on his way home. He was going to be knackered when he got in. She wondered if she should make something or wait and see if they were hungry. Detouring back to the kitchen she snagged the bottle of red wine and two glasses before heading to the snug and Elvis. She chuckled to see he'd dozed off, feet up on the coffee table and head back on the back of the sofa, mouth open with a slight drool already starting to flow. Manny, now dry thank goodness, was snuggled up beside him taking up the bulk of the sofa, snoring loudly. Should she wake him? Nah, let the poor bugger sleep, he'd had a trying day all in all. Pouring herself a drink she relaxed back and watched the TV, not really watching as she thought about what Sam had said earlier. Should she tell Charles? Of course she should, they didn't keep secrets. The sound of the front door brought her out of her introspection. Manny, hearing the sound too bounded off the sofa and headed for whoever was coming through the front door. His ungainly departure in turn woke Elvis who was on his feet and reaching for his non-existent weapon before Molly had time to move.

Molly knew exactly who would be coming in so, glancing quickly at Elvis followed the big dog. "Manny sit, sit, Oh for fucks sake get off." She heard Charles before she saw him. Pushing Manny out of the way he manoeuvred in to the hall, his other arm supporting the frail broken looking woman with him. He saw Molly as he looked up from the dog and gave her a sad smile. Rushing forward Molly relieved him of his burden. Molly may be smaller but the other woman looked like she could be blown over by a slight breeze.


	4. Chapter 4

**No mean cliff hangers this time :0) Most of you will have guessed who the woman was. I wanted to follow up on what was going on in her marriage and also to show she isn't as bad as many of us thought. So, for the Rebecca fans out there... P.S. Thank you for continuing to read and review. P.S.S. Chilimt, here's the start of your adult conversations/story although I have still included bits with the children.**

"Hello Rebecca," she said, putting her arms gently around her. "Come on, let's get you settled in. Are you hungry?" Rebecca shook her head, tears gathering in her eyes at the kindness, "I think I'd just like to sleep if that's okay." "Of course it is. Elvis, come and take Rebecca's bag upstairs, Charles you can help her up the stairs please and I'll get you a hot drink and come up to give you a hand." Handing Rebecca back to Charles she gave a stunned looking Elvis the eye, before heading off into the kitchen. Warm milk would probably be the best thing to help her sleep but not everybody liked that so she added chocolate to it and climbed the stairs to the second floor, meeting the men on their way down. "Sandwiches in the kitchen and wine in the snug if you're interested." With a grateful nod and a quick kiss on the cheek Charles let her past.

Knocking and waiting for permission before entering, Molly placed the hot chocolate on the bedside table and sat down on the edge of the bed next to Rebecca. Taking her gently into her arms she held her while she cried, murmuring soothing words as if dealing with one of the children. She wasn't here to ask questions, she was here to help. "You're safe now Rebecca, Charles won't let anyone hurt you like that again. Come on, let's get you in to bed and you can rest. Sam will be so happy to see you tomorrow." As she helped her undress, Molly saw the scars and bruises, some old some new, and felt the rage against that bloody bastard rise again but schooled her features to show no sign of her shock and anger to Rebecca. Easing her into bed under the sheet she held her hand. "If you need anything at all through the night, me and Charles are just downstairs and Elvis is just next door. Okay? Goodnight Rebecca."

Charles and Elvis were waiting for her in the snug, the plate of sandwiches half eaten between them and an additional wine glass on the table. "Is she okay?" asked Charles. "She hasn't said much at all on the journey down." "I'm not surprised, she must be in shock. She's covered in bruises and some of the scars look like burns. She looks like she's been fucking tortured." Elvis, having seen the plight of Rebecca for himself, looked between his two friends, "What the fuck happened? Domestic abuse? Has the shit been beating her? I thought they were in America."

It was Charles who took the task of replying. "They were until three months ago. That's when all contact with Sam stopped. Remember?" Elvis nodded and he continued. "They've been living in Scotland, in some kind of complex out in the wilds. Seems there were a few families there. Anyway, the place was raided and they found Rebecca chained up in one of the rooms, almost comatose with some kind of drug. There was no sign of Simon or the other men so they took the women in for questioning and took Rebecca to hospital. They had no idea of her identity until an ex colleague of George spotted the bulletin. He contacted George who phoned us to see if we could arrange somewhere for her to stay until he can get here. Molly suggested she come here and spend some time with Sam. None of us knew how damaged she was."

"Look, I've got a few weeks leave so I'll hang about for a bit too if that will help. I know I'm not her favourite person but at the moment I don't suppose beggars can be choosers and I can always take the kids out to give Molly a break." He gave Molly a conspiratorial wink, remembering the events of earlier. "Thanks Elvis that'd be a great help. Why don't you go on up Molly, you look done in. I'll just finish my supper and be right up." Realising that he wanted to talk privately to Elvis she agreed and went to bed, determined to find out what they were talking about later. She had ways of getting Charles talking. Deciding to check on Rebecca before getting in to bed she quietly opened the door so as not to disturb her if she was sleeping. She could see from the slit of light that the bed was empty. Glancing around in the gloom she spotted Rebecca curled in a tight ball, arms protectively round her head and knees, squeezed into the small space between the dresser and chair. She spoke quietly as she crossed the room, leaving the light off in the hope of not frightening the older woman too much. "Rebecca, it's Molly. I'm just going to help you up okay. Up onto the chair okay." As she crouched down in front of Rebecca her heart went out to this woman that she had once thought of as a rival. "Okay, I'm going to put my hands around you. It's only me, there's no one else here. You're safe. That's it. Do you think you can put your arms around my neck to help me lift you? Perfect. Right, one, two, three… heave. Bloody hell Rebecca you're nearly as heavy as Manny." She tried to break the tension with humour as she eased her onto the chair. A slight noise behind her and a flinch from Rebecca made her look over her shoulder. "It's only Manny, probably heard me say his name. Honestly that dog has got the hearing of a bat."

Manny pushed his way past Molly, knocking her onto her backside and after giving Rebecca a good sniffing settled down at her side, his big head in her lap. "Do you want to try for the bed next?" Molly asked from her position on the floor. "I'm not allowed on the bed" It was spoken so quietly, Molly wasn't sure she'd heard right. Only when Rebecca repeated it did she begin to understand. She'd seen the marks on Rebecca's wrists earlier but hadn't really acknowledged them, being too overwhelmed with the bruising and scars as a whole. The only part of Rebecca left unmarked was her face which was currently looking worn and haggard from all that she'd been through. "It's okay, sweetie, you're allowed on the beds in this house. You're home now. You're safe. He can't hurt you here." She saw Rebecca flinch when 'he' was mentioned. What the fuck had he done to her to change that beautiful, self-assured, even sometimes arrogant, woman into this. He had completely broken her spirit. "Well fuck you Simon; we're going to help her get that woman back!" Molly thought to herself.

She managed to persuade Rebecca back into bed, pulling the covers over her, sitting on the side and stroking her hair like she did with the children after a bad dream. She didn't sing. Nobody deserved that level of punishment. She was surprised to see Manny jump up on to the bed and settle himself in next to Rebecca, her hand coming from under the covers to clutch his fur. Smiling Molly stood and headed to the door. "I'll leave you with your body guard then. Goodnight Rebecca. I'll leave the door open a bit for you, shall I" Backing out and pulling the door almost closed she walked slowly down to her own room. As expected, Charles was still downstairs talking to Elvis. Feeling suddenly very tired, Molly undressed and climbed into her own bed, I'll be asleep before the springs hit the floor she thought to herself.

Downstairs in the snug, Charles had retrieved a couple of beers from the utility room for them and they were in deep discussion of strategy. Rebecca wasn't just the victim of domestic abuse, there was more to it. When he'd got to the hospital, there was an armed police officer outside her door and a female officer in the room with her. He'd asked to speak to the person in charge and was put through to the head of the MIT. They told him they had been watching the group for some time. Simon and one of the other men were known to have links with Daesh and had been seen with other suspected terrorists on several occasions. Simon had been on MI5s radar for a while but had disappeared three years ago. "They picked him up again eighteen months ago. He'd changed his name when he married Rebecca and had been working underground raising funds for a cell based in the north. They think he got word that they were watching him again and skipped over to the US only coming back when he thought it was safe. Rebecca was being watched too but they were 99% certain she wasn't aware what or who her husband was." "Shit Charles, thank Christ you got Sam out of there." "I'm thinking Rebecca gave him to me deliberately to save him. It looks like he's been abusing her for a while. I just don't understand why she didn't ask for help." It pained him to think she'd been going through that and didn't feel she could ask for his help. "What has Rebecca said about it all?" Elvis didn't like what he was hearing. He was worried that her being here might put the James family at risk, especially as Charlie was military.

"That's just it, she hasn't really spoken. The doctor that assessed her in Glasgow says she's suffering a kind of PTSD and whoever had been holding her in Scotland has kept her quite heavily sedated." "How long did the authorities have her before George phoned you?" "She'd been there sixteen days being questioned so no wonder she didn't feel like talking to me. The other three women have been moved to a detention centre apparently. This is big Elvis. They wouldn't give me any details only to say they'd posed a significant threat. As far as they are aware Simon is still in the country but they have no idea where. Which is where you come in. I don't know if any attempt to get Rebecca back or hurt her will be made but I need someone watching her, Molly and the kids 24/7." "I can certainly help with that but you know what Molly will say if she thinks you've got someone guarding her. Perhaps it would be best not to tell her. I could get one of the lads to do undercover surveillance." " On your own head mate. Much as I want my wife kept safe by any means, I am not keeping secrets from her. Too bloody risky. She'd cut my balls off. It wouldn't be a bad idea to set up a meeting with some of your lot though. I could get in touch with a couple of the lads from two section, set up our own protection team, maybe more. Good idea that Elvis." He said, patting Elvis on the back. "Now I don't know about you mate but I'm knackered and my lovely wife is waiting for me upstairs. So good night." Rising he was half way out of the door when he turned back "Don't say anything about the lads coming until I've had chance to work out how to tell Molly okay? Great. Turn the lights out before you go up." And turning on his heel he went quickly up the stairs looking forward to cuddling, and maybe more, with Molly. Unfortunately Lady Luck had deserted him. Molly lay fast asleep, curled up on her side of the bed.

Elvis was equally unlucky. His bed also contained a warm curled up female only this time it was of the feline variety and she showed her pleasure at his presence by giving him a massage with all four sets of claws uncurled. "Stop using me as a bloody scratching post, cat or you can find some other buggers bed to sleep in"


	5. Chapter 5

Charles and Elvis were in the kitchen talking quietly when Molly came down, the following morning. She'd checked on Rebecca and found her sleeping, Manny still cuddled next to her on the bed. "You'd better get a wriggle on love or you'll be late for work." Charles was in uniform so she knew he must be going in. "I'm going, I was just saying I might book some time off while the kids are off school. There's only three weeks of their holiday left." Molly looked at him suspiciously. He'd already had a week off with them at the beginning of the summer break. They hadn't planned any more time together. "What's going on? Is this to do with Rebecca. Is there a problem?" "No, no, everything's fine. I just wanted to spend time with you and the kids. Look we'll chat when I get back tonight. Love you." With a quick kiss he was on his way out of the door. Molly's bullshit detector was on high alert and beeping loudly. Turning slowly she pinned Elvis with a stare, "Give. Now. And don't try bluffing with me. I've spent eighteen months with two little boys who've tried every bluff in the book to get out trouble. So…"

Squirming under her intense stare, Elvis cleared his throat hoping to give himself more thinking time. 'Shit, what should he say? What could he say? Charlie was going to kill him. If he didn't kill Charlie first for abandoning him with this.' Thoughts were flying around his brain but he still wasn't getting any answers. Only one thing for it. "Charlie's thinking about taking you all over to Italy to see Gina and Max and he was just running it by me. He really needs a break and he wants to be at home with you and the children." He was waffling now and from the look on Molly's face she wasn't buying any of it. Pointing to a chair she said, "Sit." And turned to make drinks. Let him sweat a bit. He could try to put her off but she would find out the truth. Placing a fresh mug of coffee in front of him, she sat in the chair opposite and watched him, saying nothing, just looking. She'd learned early in their friendship that Elvis hated silence so giving him the silent stare treatment should make him crack fairly soon. He fidgeted and squirmed in his seat, sipping his coffee. He could withstand interrogation from the best, he was Special Forces for fucks sake but put him in front of a determined woman, especially one who knew his secrets and he was a goner. And Charlie had said he would tell her when they discussed it last night so he supposed it would've hurt.

"Look, there were a few things came up last night. Some concerns about Rebecca's safety…" The kitchen door opened with a crash and Sam and Pip rushed in, pushing each other in their race to get the seat next to Uncle Elvis. Giving a sigh of relief he looked at Molly and shrugged his shoulders before turning to his rescuers. "Okay fellas, what's the plan for today? How about a trip to the swimming baths for a real swim?" Both boys loved to swim but only got to go when Charles or their grandparents were around to take them as Molly didn't swim. Hopping with excitement they rushed into breakfast preparations with barely a glance at Molly who was busy setting a tray with toast, fruit, juice and tea to take upstairs to their guest.

"Is that okay with you Molly, if I take these two skallywags out of your hair for a few hours?" "That would be fantastic, thank you. Their swimming gear is in the utility so head off whenever you're ready. My car keys are on the hall table if you need to get Pip's booster seat out. We'll finish our chat when you get back, yeah?" Giving him one last look she picked up the loaded tray and set off up the stairs. She took a brief detour to check on Lucy who was still sleeping. As a baby she'd been an early riser, awake at 7:30 like clockwork. Now she liked to stay snuggled up in her bed, sometimes sleeping, other times playing and chatting to her toys, until Molly went in to get her. Thankfully she didn't have Pip's propensity for escape.

Making her way to the second floor Molly thought again about last night and her interaction with Rebecca. There was no way on this green earth that she could ever have imagined a scenario where she was the strong one, looking after Rebecca.

Tapping on the door, she slowly pushed it open, announcing her arrival as she went in so as not to startle the skittish woman inside. Rebecca was lying on her side facing the door, her arms wrapped around Manny. Her eyes were open and warily watching Molly as she came across the room and placed the tray carefully on the bedside table. "I've brought you some breakfast. I wasn't sure what you'd like but have this for now and then when you're ready to come down I can make whatever you want. Or if you want to stay in bed I can bring it up to you okay? Elvis is going to take the boys out in a bit so it'll be a bit quieter for you coming down." Rebecca watched her as she moved things around on the tray. "We haven't told Sam that you're here yet. I know he'll be mad to see you once he knows you're here but it's up to you. Whenever you're ready okay, no rush."

Letting go of Manny, who gave her a reassuring look before jumping off the bed and bounding down the stairs, Rebecca pushed herself into a sitting position and reached for the juice. "Thank you Molly, for having me here, for last night, for this." She moved her arm in a wide ark to indicate the room and the breakfast tray. "You're Sam's mum Rebecca, which means you're part of our family. Where else would you go? I can't even begin to imagine what you've gone through and I'm not going to pry. If, when you're ready, you want to talk, I'm here but there's no pressure. Okay?" As she talked two things occurred to Molly. "Do you want to talk to your Dad? I think he's trying to get a flight over but if you want to talk to him first…" she let the sentence fade away as she saw Rebecca begin to shake, tears overflowing on to her cheeks. "He'll be so ashamed, so disappointed in me." She was wringing the sheet between her hand as she spoke, her voice barely audible. "I doubt that, he'll be relieved and happy that you're home. But that can wait too until you're ready. Take it one step at a time."

The second thought was clothing. Rebecca had arrived with a small bag which contained the night things she was wearing and a top and pair of leggings that looked like they'd been in constant wear for quite some time. Besides the grey sweat suit she'd arrived in, these were her only possessions. Molly would offer to lend her some of her clothes until she could go shopping but she was a good six inches shorter and a good few inches larger around the bust. Maybe Gina's things might fit. Her mother in law was tall like her son and slender enough that her clothes wouldn't look too bad on Rebecca's emaciated body. Then she could take those grotty clothes and bin them. Start the process of getting rid of that bloody bastard.

Passing Rebecca the plate of toast she said, "Here, try and eat a bit of that and I'll nip in the other room and see what I can find for you to wear. Any favourite colours?"

Giving her a grateful smile Rebecca shook her head, "No, thank you."

Rebecca was still nibbling on a corner of toast when she came back with a couple of pairs of joggers, a pair of Capri pants and several t-shirts. "I found a pack of new undies in the drawer. Gina must have been to Markses last time she was home. I didn't think you'd fancy wearing her bras though so you just have to go natural eh? At least yours won't be down round you knees like some of the women I've seen in the park recently." She was rewarded by a smile and slight laugh. Baby steps Dawsey, baby steps, she reminded herself. She was just about to continue when she heard Elvis shout up the stairs, "we're off Molly, see you at lunch time." followed by the sound of running feet and the front door slamming and a voice on the first floor shouting, "mummy, me out pease," "Bugger, I'll have to go and sort her otherwise she'll have the house down. Look, see how you feel, if you want to come down it'll just be me and Lucy but if you want to stay up here and sleep that's fine." Giving her hand a comforting squeeze Molly headed down the stairs, "I'm coming Lucy locket hold your horses." "Horsey mummy, tum on horsey. Gid up". Bouncing on her toes behind the baby gate Lucy beamed when she saw her mummy. Now the boys were both capable of getting safely down the stairs on their own, the gate had been moved into place across Lucy's bedroom doorway to keep her safe until someone was there to help her down the stairs. Molly still had the horrors of someone falling down that big staircase so was taking no chances with her children.

"Come on munchkin, let's get you sorted and then some breakfast eh?" "Me dye mummy, no wet. See." Lucy proudly bent over to show Molly the dry seat of her pyjama bottoms. "Clever girl. Wait 'til we tell Daddy. He's going to be sooooooo happy" Giving Lucy a hug, she balanced her on her hip and set off back down to the kitchen. Normally she would let Lucy walk down the stairs but she had a tendency to jump before she got to the bottom and Molly had enough drama going on without that. "Well Miss Lucy, what are you having for breakfast today? Cereal? Toast? Fruit?" "Podge." She replied with a decisive nod." It's a bit warm for porridge, sweetie, how about Weetabix?" Shaking her head and making her curls fly she took her Mum's face in her hands and turned it until they were nose to nose,"Podge!" "Okay, porridge it is." Putting Lucy onto a chair she set about making her porridge, humming along to songs on the radio and answering Lucy's questions when needed.

She didn't know Rebecca had entered the room until she heard Lucy ask, "Mummy, who sat?" Smiling at Rebecca she crossed to Lucy, "This is…" how should she introduce her? Sam's mummy, which she was, would confuse Lucy who had only ever known Molly as his mum. She was just about to speak when Rebecca said quietly, "I'm your Aunty Rebecca sweetie." Looking to Molly for confirmation, Lucy smiled "'Tay, betfass Betta. Sit. Podge" Clapping her hands together she welcomed their guest. Lucy was a very sociable child and soon had Rebecca feeling at ease, chatting about Kitty and Manny between mouthfuls of porridge. Molly left the two of them to get to know each other while she made bacon butties for them, not being a big fan of porridge. Lucy was onto her favourite subject of 'Lilo Sich' by the time Molly joined them. "She drives the boys up the wall wanting to watch it all the time. Mind you, Pip does bear a remarkable resemblance to Stitch with his antics." As they sat around the kitchen table chatting, she could see Rebecca visibly relaxing. She didn't initiate any of the talk but she did join in which was a good sign.

She was startled out of her rumination by Lucy shouting, "Done Mummy, down!" obviously not for the first time. Giving her hands and face a quick wipe she lifted her down onto her feet. " Ten minutes Luce then wash and dress." She was talking to Lucy's tail end by the time she'd finished.

Grinning, she picked up the iPad from the counter and moved back to sit with Rebecca. "I had an idea. Catalogue shopping! We can order you some clothes online and get them on next day delivery. How does that sound? We can get everything you need." "I haven't any money." Rebecca said in a small voice, once again tears coming to her eyes. It must be so humiliating for this once proud woman to be in this situation. Not wanting to make her feel like a charity case, Molly put her arm around her and said, "No problem, you can owe me. Or pay me back in babysitting." she added gleefully, trawling through the various websites. They had been choosing and rejecting various items for quarter of an hour, adding things to the basket, hopping from one website to another when Molly suddenly remembered Lucy who had been suspiciously quiet. "You keep going 'Becca, I need to get Lucy dressed." Searching the snug, drawing room and dining room she was beginning to think the little monkey had taken herself upstairs, something she knew she wasn't allowed to do. A slight noise caught her attention and she looked under the dining table. At first she didn't see her but as she bent lower she could just make out a little foot hanging off the edge of a chair on the far side of the table. Lucy had wedged herself across two chairs tucked under the table. Molly got down on her hands and knees, "what're you doing under there Lucy locket?" "Ssssss Mummy, pay hidin seet wiv Titty." Lucy hadn't quite got the grasp of the game her brothers played as Kitty was also curled up on one of the chairs tucked under the table. "Ah, right. Well time to get dressed and then you can play some more."

Lucy looked gorgeous dressed in pretty frocks but it was always a battle to get her into them, wanting to wear trousers like the boys instead. As a compromise, Molly had found a great shop that made play clothes in bright primary colours. Dressed in a white top with red dungarees, sporting patch pockets in blue and yellow she looked so cute. Her dark brown curls so like Charles's and Andrew's were wild about her face. Molly had tried tying them up but within minutes they were loose again. "Where tut?" She asked as she jumped the last two steps, causing Molly to quickly follow. Her wooden truck was her favourite toy, she would trundle it around the house and garden for hours, happily transporting things, usually Kitty, from one place to another. "I think it's outside. D'you want to play in the garden?" Taking the grunt as a yes, Molly led the way back into the kitchen. "D'you fancy some fresh air Rebecca? We can take the iPad with us into the garden." The look of fear passing over Rebecca's face stalled her for a moment. "It's okay, you'll be safe there. Nobody can get into the back garden, remember. It'll just be the three of us." "And Manny." suggested Rebecca. Manny had already decided that when he saw Lucy toddling off through the utility room. "Mon, Mummy. Waitin'" Picking up their coffees she indicated for Rebecca to bring the iPad, "My mistress calls" she laughed, disappearing into the utility.

They had managed to order underwear, nightwear, several tops and jumpers, jeans, trousers, shoes, trainers and sandals, a couple of summer dresses and a light weight coat and were sitting peacefully watching Lucy play when her mobile phone rang. Molly felt Rebecca stiffen beside her and her sharp intake of breath. Glancing quickly at the caller ID, "it's just Elvis. Hi Elvis, what's up?... oh yeah, that would be great….. just a minute. The boys are heading home and calling at MacDonalds to pick up lunch on their way. What would you like?" "I don't know, I've never had MacDonalds. I always thought it was bad for…." her voice trailed off. She didn't want Molly to think she was criticising her parenting. "Sorry." Not put out in the least, Molly stared at her, "bloody hell, 'Becks, you've never lived until you've had at least one Maccy Ds. Elvis, we'll both have the quarter pounder with cheese meal deal…. Yeah, best make it Diet Coke…. Whatever the boys say to you, they'll have a happy meal with fruit shoots. Same for Lucy. Best make hers a chicken nuggets one. Thanks Elvis, see you in a bit." Hanging up she turned and looked at Rebecca who was pleating the hem of Gina's top between her fingers. "You worrying about seeing Sam? You don't need to. He's going to be so happy to see you. Just one thing though. He calls me Mum now too, I hope you don't mind. I think he does it more for Lucy and Pip than anything, to stop them getting confused." She knew it would hurt Rebecca when she heard him say it for the first time, especially as she was already feeling so insecure. "I can ask him to just call me Molly if you want."

Rebecca shook her head and reached for Molly's hands, "No, you are his mum now too, you've been looking after him loving him when I couldn't. You've become so wise, so lovely to me and my son, Molly. I'm sorry for the way I treated you in the past." Giving the older woman a hug, Molly cleared her throat, "Let's forget the past, hey? Start new. Starting with you trying MacDonalds. I guarantee you're going to love it." Laughing and teasing a smile from Rebecca. "Lucy, come wash your hands for lunch." "No jus et. 'M busy" Glancing through the rose bush she could see the back of Lucy but not exactly what she was doing. "What're you doing sweetie? It's nearly lunch time." "'M berry busy" came the reply. Needing to see for herself Molly walked around in front of her daughter who had managed to pull up all the plants Charles had put into the little veg plot the week before. A pile of cabbage and sprout plants lay in her truck. "'M busy tutting Mummy." She beamed up at Molly. "Oh foot, Daddy's not going to be happy Lucy. I think we might gonna need to get them planted again this afternoon. Now come and get washed." Not too happy with this verdict, Lucy plonked herself down in the dirt, bottom lip stuck out and arms crossed, "nont" she said, shaking her head. Molly looked up at Rebecca who was smiling at the byplay, lifting her shoulders in a shrug she smiled back. "Oh well, no Happy Meal for you then. I'll have the toy, okay?" Scrambling rapidly to her feet, she pushed Molly out of the way and headed for the door, "mon Betta, Donals. Wass hans." Sharing a laugh with Molly they followed her in. "Food will do it every time, especially a treat like a Happy Meal. She's been the same since she was a baby, give her a chocolate biscuit and you're friends for life. By the way, what're you like at gardening? Charles says I've got a black thumb or something 'cause every plant I touch dies and Lucy's 'cooking' needs replanting."

They'd just finished cleaning up and were heading back down the stairs, Lucy dangling between them like a baby monkey, when the front door flew open and two boys and two men came in. Doing a double take, Molly smiled with confusion, "Spunky? When did you arrive?" "Got here just as they were going swimming so decided to join them. Spanner's just parking the car." In all the confusion Molly had forgotten about Sam and Rebecca. Sam hadn't noticed her on the stairs as he passed through to the kitchen and now shouted, " foods getting cold Mum, come on." With a tilt of the head that would have made Major James envious she sent everyone off into the kitchen, directing Rebecca into the snug instead. She thought she might want a bit of privacy to see her son for the first time in eighteen months. "I'll send him through," she said gently before following the others. In the kitchen there was mayhem as food was sorted. "Sam, before you eat, there's someone in the snug who really wants to see you." "Is it Steven? I thought he wasn't coming until the party." "Just go and see." she said, grabbing Pip by the collar as he went to follow. "Not you this time Pip squeak. You eat your lunch, he'll be back in a minute."

A knock on the front door gave Molly an excuse for a quick spy as she passed. Rebecca had Sam held tight in her arms, tears flowing down her face. Sam looked as if he was burrowing into her, trying to get as close as he could. Opening the door to let Spanner in, she sent him off to find the others. She'd get to the bottom of their appearance later but for now other things were more important. Stepping to the door of the snug she casually said, "Anyone here hungry? I just heard Uncle Elvis threatening to eat anything not claimed." Looking up, his eyes bright with tears of happiness Sam told her, "My mum's here." As if he couldn't quite believe it. But then a thought obviously crossed his mind, "I call you Mum too but my mum's here." He was getting confused and the worry lines that she hadn't seen for quite a while were back. "I'll tell you what Scamp, your mum is your Mum and I'll be Mum Two okay." Giggling he tried it out for sound, "Mum-two. I like it. Come on Mum, Mum-two, let's go and eat." Taking Rebecca by the hand he marched off in the direction of the noisy group in the kitchen. "This is my Mum," he announced as if pulling a rabbit from a hat. "and this is Mum-two." pointing at Molly before moving into his seat and reaching for his lunch. Introductions were made and they all settled down to eat, Molly watched Sam regularly look to check Rebecca was still there and Rebecca hardly taking her eyes off her son as she ate.

Glancing round the table Molly noted that three of the adults were occupied with the children as they ate. Sam and Rebecca naturally together, chatting quietly; Pip, who was sitting next to Spanner was busy interrogating him about his beard and Lucy, the little flirt was batting her long eye lashes at Spunky while she helped herself to his fries. That left Elvis defenceless and unguarded so… "So Elvis, Spanner and Spunky just happened to be passing did they? Thought they'd drop in on the off chance you were here? Maybe I should set the dining table for three more tonight, you know, just in case Jackson, Dino and Peanut should happen to be passing too?" Raising a questioning eyebrow she waited. A slow tide of red worked its way up from his neck. She could see him frantically wondering how the hell he'd managed to leave himself open like this. "Er, you might want to make that six. Fingers, Brains and Mansfield are coming too." Molly's eyes widened as she took in the situation. This was a hell of a lot more than domestic abuse if the lads were gathering. If the old saying was ' _there's no show without Punch'_ then this Judy was going to be involved too.


	6. Chapter 6

Seeing that everyone had finished eating, Pip was now kneeling on his chair to get a better look, and feel, of that beard and Lucy had climbed into Spunky's lap and gone to sleep. Rebecca began gathering the empty cartons and wrappers. "You were right Molly, I did enjoy it, thanks." Moving to take Lucy from Spunky he suggested she just lead the way and he'd carry her upstairs. By the time they came back down, the kitchen was empty. True to her word Rebecca had gone to replant Charles's precious cabbages and sprouts and the boys had gone to help. She noticed Spanner had gone out with them and was currently sitting on the garden bench playing with Manny. Backtracking to the snug she found Elvis and Spunky waiting. Lifting his hand to forestall her questions he said, "Charlie's on his way home, should be here in about five so let's wait 'til he gets here, okay?" Not having much choice, Molly took herself off to make coffee for the small group.

Sure enough, she had just finished putting the tray together when she heard the front door open and voices in the hall. Hmm, so more than Charles had arrived. Poking her head out of the door to see how many more cups were needed her spirits lifted as she saw the grinning faces of the lads from 2 Section. Mansfield was the first to spot her, "Hello Darlin' have you missed me?" Grinning over his shoulder at the others he lifted he up for a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. Brains and Fingers, not to be outdone, followed suit leaving only her husband yet to greet her. Directing the others to the drawing room, the snug as its name suggested, being too small for such a large gathering, Charles walked Molly back into the kitchen. Slipping his arms around her waist he pulled her in for a deep kiss. "I'm sorry I didn't let you know about all this. I was going to last night but you were asleep. Then this morning I was running late. I was hoping to leave it until tonight but things are moving faster than we expected." "Things?" Molly asked into his chest, "What sort of things?" "Let's take this through and I'll bring you up to speed. Where're Rebecca and the kids?" "Lucy is upstairs sleeping off a huge lunch of her own meal and half of Spunky's and Rebecca and the boys are in the garden. Spanner's with them. Should I tell them to come in?" "Not yet. They'll be okay with Spanner."

Leading the way through to the drawing room, Charles carried the heavy tray and Molly brought up the rear with the tin of broken biscuits. The other five were settled in, having caught up with each other. Dispensing drinks and biscuits Molly joined Charles on the sofa and waited. "Right, well thanks all of you for giving up your time like this. I'll owe you all big time. We're just grateful you could all come. There isn't a bunch of blokes I'd trust more to keep my family safe." He reached and took hold of Molly's hand trying to reassure her. "We don't know for certain that they're in any danger but I'm not willing to take the risk." Taking a drink of his coffee he took the opportunity to compose himself and organise his thoughts.

"On Tuesday we got a phone call from my ex father-in-law telling me Rebecca, my ex wife, was in hospital in Glasgow and asking if I could look after her until he can get back to the UK. When I got up to Glasgow I found it wasn't that simple. She's been badly abused, physically and mentally, starved, beaten, kept chained up for god knows how long." His voice began to break with emotion so Elvis took over. "Turns out the dick she married wasn't just a regular dick who got his rocks off beating up on women. He claimed to have converted to Islam when he was in his late teens although there's no evidence that he actually did. His mum married a Turkish bloke she met on holiday and he changed his name to Samir Metin, his step father's surname, travelled to Turkey, supposedly to visit his step family but had been clocked going over the border into Syria." Flipping open the cover on his iPad he passed round a photo of Simon. "He was on the radar of MI5 and Serious Crimes but they had nothing to arrest him on. They started getting close about 3 years ago but he dropped out of sight." "So that was when he married your ex, yeah? But I thought her name was Martin" "it is Mike. He started calling himself Simon Martin and that's who Rebecca knew him to be." Charles took up the reins once again. "His marriage to Rebecca was his cover while he was in hiding. Things were a bit rocky and I think he was mistreating her from early on in the marriage." "Mistreating her? He was fucking using her as a punch bag and ash tray. Sam was terrified of the bloody bastard, his words not mine by the way." Molly was becoming more and more angry as information was aired. Why hadn't any of them noticed? Why hadn't Rebecca asked for help, tried to get away? The only person who could answer that was Rebecca herself. "Eighteen months ago he was apparently recognised on a routine drink driving stop and panicked. He 'persuaded' Rebecca to up sticks and move to New York where he had connections. I don't know if he would have taken Sam but Rebecca managed to get him out of harm's way by giving me custody. His 'work' continued in the US and three months ago they came back into the country as Mr and Mrs Charles fucking James. I can only assume they left the country the same way. The authorities think their weekend trip in early December before they left for good was to test their fake passports."

"Back in the UK," jumped in Elvis, "He took Rebecca and joined a small cell just outside Glasgow and they were under surveillance as an attack was expected imminently. When the police raided the premises there was no sign of the men, just three women, also part of the cell who are now in detention along with one bloke that they managed to pick up a few days later. Rebecca was found chained up in the bedroom in a pitiful state. The police have no reason to think she's involved and have been treating her as a hostage." "So where's the bastard now?" asked Fingers, hatred of the man written all over his face.

Spunky moved forward in his seat, checked something on the iPad and explained, "He's gone to ground again but the high ups think he may be heading this way. He sees Rebecca as his property and is going to want to get her back. The profile MI5 have on him shows him to be narcissistic with a very possessive nature. He had a very rocky relationship with his step father who he felt had 'stolen' his mother from him. It was believed that he had been violent towards his mother before her marriage and didn't like having that control taken from him. His step father was admitted to hospital with chemical burns which he claimed were the result of an accident with a car battery. More likely inflicted by Martin. In relationships he had to be the one to end it. Any girl who walked away from him appeared to have an accident of some form or other, usually resulting in disfigurement." "Elvis has spoken with the top bloke in charge of this and he's more than happy to have our help protecting Rebecca and the family. All of them, myself included are at risk, Simon/Samir has no qualms about hurting anyone who gets in his way, including children."

Unable to listen to any more, Molly got to her feet and left the room, taking the stairs two at a time she walked along to Lucy's room. Sitting in the old nursing chair she watched her little girl sleep. She may not have given birth to her but she was still her little girl. They were all her children and she would not let that bloody bastard within a mile of them. She heard a footfall and looked up to see Charles standing in the doorway, resting his shoulder against the jamb. "We won't let him hurt them, promise me Charles. We'll keep them safe." Tears were starting to fall as the different possibilities and memory of the murders of Beth and Andrew came into her head. They had died because another creature, she refused to call him a man, wanted revenge. Charles squatted down in front of her, drawing her into his arms, "We'll keep them safe Sweetheart, you, me and the lads but you'll need to do whatever I ask you. Your turn to promise me, no going off on your own or thinking you can fix things without us. Okay?" Resting into him she nodded, discreetly wiping her nose and tears on his chest. They remained that way, holding on to each other until a jubilant little voice behind him said, "Daddy, me pidbat!" and a sturdy little body cannoned onto his back, hands grappling for purchase as she scrambled up into place for her piggy back.

At the top of the stairs his phone rang, seeing the caller ID he indicated for Molly to remove the little barnacle from his back and moved to the privacy of their bedroom. Molly heard his say "George" as the door swung closed. "Come on monkey, looks like it's going to be a piggy front for you." Which, of course Lucy loved the sound of, "pidfunt mummy, pidfunt". Leaving Charles to his call, they went to find Rebecca and the boys in the garden.

"George, hello… yes sorry, we didn't get back until late last night and to be honest, I was bloody knackered and so was Rebecca… Molly has been with her most of the day… From what she's told me it looks like the bastard abused her very badly, burns, scars, bruises. God knows what other scars she's got… Look, there's something I need to tell you and it's not good… No, no that's not the problem. She can stay here as long as needed. That's the thing, this is probably the safest place for her…. When I got to the hospital yesterday…" Charles lay back on the bed as he brought George up to date on the situation. "So, the thing is George, you being here or Rebecca going to your sister's will just create more targets and make it harder for us to do our job… I know you want to help and you can. Can you get in touch with any of your old contacts from the Met, see what, if any word there is amongst the communities. His Mum and Step Dad aren't speaking to the authorities but they might let things slip to friends if they know anything… Great, that'll be fantastic…. She's out in the garden with Sam… yeah, Molly says he was so happy to see her, been watching her like a hawk, making sure she doesn't disappear again. I will and I'll get her to ring you. I'll see about getting her a mobile so you can keep in touch with her…. Okay, you too George. Bye." Dropping his phone on the bed by his side he relaxed back into the mattress. He'd like nothing more than to just close his eyes and go to sleep. Well, maybe one thing more but that would involve getting Molly in here and a couple of hours without interruption. Grinning he pushed himself up. He needed to get a phone organised. He'd get the Queen of Shopping on to it.

The drawing room was empty when he got downstairs but from the sound of it the kids were in the snug with Molly and Rebecca watching a DVD, not bloody Lilo and Stitch he was pleased to note. Manny relaxed on the cool tiles of the hall behind the front door and Kitty's whereabouts soon became evident when he heard Elvis yell, "Owww, fucking cat!" followed by loud laughter and several rude remarks from the lads in the kitchen. Walking in he looked around the group. Peanut had arrived and Spanner had joined them from the garden. On the table was a map of Bath with the Crescent highlighted in pink. There was also a enlarged copy focussed on the Crescent showing all access points and any vulnerable areas. "Peanut brought these with him. Thought they might come in handy." commented Elvis pointing at the maps. "We're just organising into teams and allocating specific tasks. Not sure if Molly should be in on this but I reckon she'll want to be with the kids as much as possible rather than be part of a specific team." "She seems to have taken Rebecca into her brood too by the looks of things." added Spanner. Charles nodded his agreement, "Yeah, as long as we keep her informed and don't try to hide anything, and I mean ANYTHING from her we should be able to stay out of the divorce court." The others laughed but Elvis and 2 Section knew how close to the truth that was.

The talk continued until Sam stuck his head around the door, "Mum-two says if you're going to carry on hogging the kitchen you'd better be making dinner too. Actually she said bloody dinner but she told me not to repeat that bit." He gave his father a cheeky grin as he moved across to join him by the fridge. The men began rapidly clearing the table intent on vacating the kitchen as quickly as possible, muttering about beans on toast and cold cereal. It was Fingers who broke the exodus, " Oh for fucks sake, how hard can it be to make pasta for…" he did some calculating on his fingers. "thirteen?" "Fifteen" chipped in Peanut as there was a knock on the door. "That'll be Dino and Jackson. They went to pick up supplies." he finished with a wink. Nodding understandingly they waited for the newcomers to join them.

Fingers, taking control of catering, barked instructions to the others. Brains and Mansfield were given the task of foraging the various ingredients from whatever corner of the kitchen, utility or garden shed they might be lurking in, Elvis and his team went to bring in the 'supplies' which were then secreted away up to the second floor and Charles and Sam were sent back to the snug with the message that everything was in hand. "Lot easier than setting up a kitchen area in Afghan" Fingers told his mates as he lifted pans down from the rack above his head. "How the fuck does Molly reach these? Bloody short arse."

Squeezing himself into a corner of the sofa next to Molly, Charles looked around at his family. Sam was cuddled up with Rebecca on the other sofa, his arms wrapped tightly around her. She in turn looked like she needed his weight to keep her tethered, as if a single breath of wind could blow her away. She looked so fragile, dark bruises under her eyes, highlighted on the pale face. It hurt him to think what she had been through and he felt a stab of guilt at his own harsh attitude towards her in the past. If he'd been kinder would she have confided in him? Probably not. Moving on he saw Pip, snuggled into Molly's side at the other end of the sofa, he was playing with his curls, twisting one round and round his finger as he tended to do when he was concentrating. Molly herself turned and gave him a welcoming smile as he settled himself in next to her, raising her eyebrow in silent communication. Smiling back he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. The missing member of the family appeared from the far side of the coffee table like some kind of sloth rising from its sleep, her eyes lighting up as she spied her Daddy. Manoeuvring herself around the various legs and obstacles she climbed his legs to settle on his lap before leaning her head back and asking, "Where Punty?" "Spunky, he shared his fries with her at lunch time so he's her new best friend. I'm just waiting to see her try and fit him in her truck." Laughed Molly. "Where tut?" She immediately asked. "Your truck's in the garden now shhhh and watch the monkey."

Dinner was an uproarious affair, with everyone opting to stay in the kitchen to eat despite the lack of seats. Molly had suggested the men eat in the dining room but Pip who had once more taken command of Spanner and Lucy who was perched on Spunky's knee covering both herself and him with pasta sauce had put paid to that suggestion. Rebecca was tempted out of her shell a little by Peanut who spent most of the meal telling jokes to keep her laughing and the patented Fingers charm as he insisted she eat some more or he'd be offended. "Pretty good pasta. Didn't know you were Italian." "Oh aye, me granny McMahon" "Your granny McMahon comes from Belfast" Mansfield was getting confused. "Belfast in Tuscany." Everyone was laughing by the time he realise Fingers was pulling his leg. This in turn lead to Elvis telling stories of his holidays over in Italy when he was a child and Charles butting in with tales of meals he'd had with Elvis's parents. "I have just one question." All eyes turned in Molly's direction waiting, "Who's doing the washing up?" There was a universal groan as Molly chuckled and caught Rebecca's eye giving her a conspiratorial wink.

As might have been predicted with all the excitement going on in the house, bed time took a long time. Sam was reluctant to leave his mum even after being assured she'd still be there tomorrow, Pip insisted that he _needed_ stories from everyone and Lucy was so over tired she became fractious and refused to close her eyes, resulting in Molly holding her in the old nursing chair, rocking her until she fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Thank you to everyone still reading and reviewing, I can't tell you how much it means to me that you are enjoying this revisit to the family. As i've already finished the story, I'm just going to go ahead and post the rest of it. Happy reading 😘😘**_

Breathing a sigh of relief the adults gathered with several bottles of wine and beer in the drawing room. They had yet to work out sleeping arrangements for all their guests. Elvis and Charles were talking quietly in one corner as Molly and Rebecca entered, looking up and smiling as spaces were made available for them.

"Rebecca, you've probably guessed that there's something going on, that's why all the lads are here." "No shit Sherlock" muttered Molly causing Rebecca, who was seated next to her, to snigger. "Look, there's no easy way to say this. We think Simon may come after you." Molly felt her stiffen and heard the sharp intake of breath. "It's okay sweetie, you're safe. He isn't going to get you. We're going to get him first." Taking hold of Rebecca's hand and squeezing Molly remembered her friend saying that to her in a compound in Afghanistan. "The lads are going to look after us, they know what they're doing and I'm a trained killer." She finished with a grin. Charles grinned too and there were several snorts and groans from the lads. "Yeah, yeah she's even got the medal to prove it." This nugget of information distracted them for a short while as the story of how she got her Military Cross was shared with those not in the know. "Shit, you've got balls." admired Dino. "I fucking hope not!" The horror in Charles's voice had them all descending into laughter.

"Focus up guys," Elvis decided to take charge of the gathering. " The lads are going to take it in turns keeping watch on a six hourly cycle. Jackson is going to set up surveillance equipment at the front and back of the house so we can monitor any traffic, foot or motorised, and check for anomalies. Spunky is carrying out intel, liaising with the big wigs, and any contacts we're given. Charles is a potential target so we're keeping him off the front line so to speak." Molly could feel Rebecca becoming more and more tense as he spoke. "Don't worry, it's just a precaution. He'll probably be picked up before he gets anywhere near the house." She tried to reassure her."This is all my fault, I shouldn't have got you involved." Echoes of my past thought Molly. Hopefully this will end without anyone getting shot.

"Rebecca, sweetheart, we know this will be hard for you, fuck, harder than any of us can imagine I bet, but we need your help. We need you to tell us all you can about Simon and any of his friends or family that you met, or he talked about. Do you think you can do that?" Everyone was so engrossed waiting for her answer that the drawing room door being pushed forcefully open caused more than one heart to stop beating and numerous hands to reach for non existent weapons. "Ooof," Manny focussed their attention. "Oh shit, he hasn't been out for a walk today." groaned Molly. "Ooof, Ooof" agreed the big dog nudging the body nearest to him which just happened to be Mansfield, Molly saw with a wry smile. "Looks like you're on poop duty." sniggered Brains. Grumbling as he got to his feet, Mike looked down at the dog, "it better not be smelly 'cause I have a delicate stomach." His only response a wag of a tail which was strong enough to nearly knock him off his feet. Once he had left, Molly suggested a brief break until he returned. Also giving Rebecca chance to absorb what had already been said and prepare herself for what she needed to do.

It was nearly half an hour before the two Mansfields returned, one flopping exhausted down on to the floor, the other barging his way past bodies to settle on Rebecca's feet as if sensing she needed support. "Either I'm out of condition or I need to start eating what that dog eats." "You already do, that's why you're out of condition" mocked Brains as Fingers intoned, "The Fifty Sausage Challenge!"

"Right, back on task guys. Rebecca? Simon? Where did you two meet?" Elvis again took the lead. "A friend introduced us, well, more of a colleague really. I was helping out at a charity shop and Amira, she was another volunteer, suggested going out for a drink. I wasn't sure because I didn't know her that well but Charles had Sam so I was at a bit of a loose end. We went to The Chequers, that gastro pub," she looked at Molly for recognition, "I'd not been in it before but it was pretty quiet. Simon came in just after us and joined us at our table." "Was he alone?" queried Spunky, tapping information into the tablet he held. "That time yes. He just chatted with us for a bit then left. When I went in the shop the next week Amira said he really liked me and suggested we meet up with him again. He was with another man this time, Andre, I think he was called. He and Amira left shortly after they arrived leaving me with Simon. Things just progressed from there." She was shaking as she relayed this information, "I should have realised he wasn't really interested in me, I'm older and well…." "Nah, don't be daft love, you might be a bit older but I still would." piped up Dino from his spot on the floor resulting in a couple of sniggers and stunned inhalations plus a nudge in the ribs from Elvis. "Well I would, no offence intended love but you're still a looker." He defended his comment bringing a shy smile to Rebecca's face.

"So I take it he pushed the relationship?" Elvis tried to keep the conversation on track. It was getting late and he was aware they wouldn't be able to talk in the morning when the children were about. "Yes, I admit it was very flattering. He paid me compliments all the time, listened when I moaned about Charles being away all the time. Now I think about it he was always interested to know when Charles would be away. I thought it was for Sam's sake but… Anyway we got married three months after meeting. He said he just wanted a quiet wedding, just us because his father had died recently." "Did you ever meet his mum or any other family?" "There was a man called Thomas who he said was his cousin, he came a few times. He was the one who bought the furniture and things when we went to America." Mention of America obviously reminded her of leaving Sam and caused her to stumble. She reached for the wine glass that had been untouched on the side table, drinking half of it in one go. "How long before he started hitting you?" Charles asked quietly, his fists clenched at his sides. "About six months after the wedding. You were away and Sam was playing up. He never hit Sam, I promise, but he did frighten him. I always tried to get between them. Sam was writing something about jobs and asked him what his job was. You know Sam, he never gives up when an answer is too vague. Anyway, I could see he was getting angry so I sent Sam to his room to finish his work. That was the first time he hit me, said I'd been pushing Sam to ask questions."

"What did he say his job was?" All eyes turned to Molly who up until that point had been silent, "I mean, I'm presuming he went out to work each day or did he work from home? He must have been getting money from somewhere to keep you."

Rebecca looked down at her hands holding the glass, a tide of red working it's way into her face. "He took over the finances, my bank account, my savings that had the money mum left me, the household accounts, said it was a man's job. I can't believe I've been so stupid. He said he was a fundraiser for a charity so sometimes worked from home. He had a tablet that he took everywhere with him. I remember trying to use it once to look something up while he was upstairs but it was password protected. He beat me for that. I was so ashamed of what was happening, he said it was my own fault, that I was a bad wife and mother, that was why Charles hadn't wanted me, why he preferred to be away."

Charles opened his mouth to speak but found anger had robbed him of words. "It wasn't you Rebecca, he was just as bad when we first got together, the army was everything." Molly put her arm around Rebecca at the same time giving Charles an apologetic look. "It's getting late, Rebecca must be getting tired and I know I am. Why don't you, Elvis and Rebecca shut yourselves in here tomorrow and I'll keep the kids out of the way. You can tell the rest of the lads anything they need to know." There were nods from the various bodies sprawled around the floor and on chairs.

"Yeah, okay." Elvis agreed reluctantly. "Who's on first shift? Just stay inside tonight but check front and back regularly. In the morning Jackson will set up the cameras so we can go down to one man monitoring." Mansfield and Spanner were taking first watch so Molly directed the others to the spare rooms. 2 Section claimed the room Gina and Max generally used which left the playroom for the Special Forces lads. Charles brought down the inflatable beds they usually used when all the Dawes and James clans descended at the same time.

Molly went with Rebecca up to the second floor, "How are you feeling? You did really well. You're a very strong woman Rebecca and whatever that dick said to you, he was wrong. You are a fantastic mother and Sam is a fantastic kid thanks to you." Rebecca was trembling as she sat on the side of the bed. "Thanks for calling a halt. I'm not sure I could have held it together much longer. I'm so ashamed Molly, I let this happen, it's all my fault." Putting her head in her hands she let the tears fall. "Nope, not having that," said Molly forcefully. "Him abusing you and being a terrorist is no more your fault than England being a crap football team. He's the one to blame, he's the one did this, doing this, not you. You are the victim here but that is nothing to be ashamed of. It will take time but you'll find yourself again, I promise, and we're going to be here to help and to get you whatever help you need. Now, will you be okay to sleep? Is there anything I can get you?" "Maybe Manny…" Rebecca began just as the door was pushed open and the big dog strolled in, taking his place on the bed as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "I swear that bloody dog takes lessons from Charles." Laughing Molly gave Rebecca a brief hug and left her to get ready for bed.

Back downstairs in her own room she undressed and waited for Charles to join her, determined not to fall asleep again. It wasn't long before the door was pushed open and, like Manny, Charles strolled in and took his place beside her on the bed, not bothering to undress. "Just a few minutes and then I have to go back downstairs. Spunky has had intel from a source up in Scotland that we need to look through. Is Rebecca okay? I haven't said 'thank you' for everything you've done for her today." He leaned over to kiss her, holding his hand to the side of her face. Coming up for air, Molly couldn't help sniggering, "Wait until you get the credit card bill." "Oh shit, what've you bought this time? Before I forget, can you sort a mobile for her so she can keep in touch with George?" Last time he'd had a huge credit card bill the new super king size bed they were now lying on had arrived. Molly saying she'd never had a new bed in her entire life, and the fact it was very comfortable even if they did only use about a third of it most of the time, meant he forgave her. Chuckling she pulled him down again, tempting him to stay, with her kisses and wandering hands.

The kisses deepened as her hand moved lower cupping him firmly until he could stand it no longer. "Fuck it, they can wait ten minutes." He said reaching for his belt.

Back downstairs the drawing room had been transformed into a centre for operations. Spunky had set up his tablet, laptop, printer and mobile phone in one corner along with large display boards that had appeared from somewhere although Charles had no idea where. They displayed maps, photos of Simon and known associates and any information they currently had, including names given to them by Rebecca. Jackson was ferreting away on the other side of the room setting up a bank of monitors ready to be linked to the cameras he would install in the morning. Dino and Peanut along with Fingers and Brains has headed off to get some shuteye before their shift on watch. Spanner and Mansfield were in the kitchen making coffee in preparation for the night ahead. Which left Charles and Elvis to listen to what Spunky had got and decide how urgent it was.

"Right, the lads up in Glasgow that have been monitoring the complex saw movement there late this afternoon in one of the outbuildings. It was searched on the day Rebecca was picked up and nothing found so it's a mystery what they're doing in there. One of the men is known to them and they followed him to a house in Workington. The other bloke, as yet unidentified is still in Glasgow. They've sent pictures of both to see if Rebecca can identify either of them. It looks like they could be heading South, possibly Manchester or Liverpool." Charles saw Elvis's reaction and knew he was thinking of his ex-fiancé Georgie and the terrorist incident she had been involved in. "Any news on Simon? Do they think he's still in Glasgow or with the bloke in Workington?" "Nothing as yet but there's an all ports alert out." "Thanks Spunky. Go and get your head down mate. Busy day tomorrow."

Moving to the side they left him to record the latest information and photographs on the boards. "So, do you think Rebecca is telling the truth that she didn't know anything? Can she really be that naïve?" Elvis always doubted everything until he gained proof otherwise. "I think she's telling the truth. She was pretty stupid to get involved but it sounds like he's an excellent conman and she's not the first he duped. She was at a pretty low ebb after the divorce and I didn't help, going through my own demons after the shooting. Basically left everything for her to deal with including full time care of Sam. A good looking bloke paying her attention, no surprise she fell for it really. As for the rest… Well, George set really high expectations for his girls, wasn't best pleased when we divorced. I can understand why she wouldn't want to admit she'd fucked up again. I'm just grateful to her for getting Sam out of it." Nodding Elvis sighed, "Okay, let's see what she says in the morning." Patting him on the back Charles made his way back upstairs to bed, looking in on the children as he passed their rooms. Elvis went to the kitchen to let Mansfield and Spanner know he was heading up.

He was on the verge of going into his room when he heard a sound. At first he wasn't sure what it was but then it got louder, sounding like an animal in pain. Was Kitty trapped somewhere? The door at the other end of the hall opened and Brains stuck his head out. "Should I get Molly?" he asked inclining his head towards Rebecca's door. Unsure if he was doing the right thing he told Brains to hang on a few minutes. No point waking Molly if he could deal with it. Carefully pushing open the door he called out, "Rebecca, it's Elvis. Are you okay sweetheart?" There was no reply so he moved further into the room. The bed was empty so he quickly scanned the room. The whimpering seemed to be coming from the corner near the wardrobe. He began moving toward the sound when he heard a growl. Manny was lying on the floor across the wardrobe door which he realise was partially open. Crouching down he let Manny sniff him, "I only want to help her pal." He patted Manny on the head and eased his way past him. Gently pulling the door open wider he continued to speak reassuringly to both Rebecca and the dog. He could just make out her curled outline in the dim light. "Rebecca, it's Elvis. You're safe sweetheart. Nobody is going to hurt you. You can come out now. Here, let me help you up." She flinched away from his proffered hand, cowering deeper into the wardrobe, making a keening sound.

Standing up he moved back to the door, to Brains who had waited out of sight. "We're gonna need Molly. Tell Charlie, sorry, yeah?" Waiting until Brains had moved away, he made his way back over to the wardrobe. "It's okay, Molly's coming. She'll help you. You're safe." Even as he said it, he wondered if she would ever feel safe again. The pounding of feet up the stairs heralded the arrival of Molly and Charles. He heard a bedroom door close and presumed Brains had returned to bed. Molly eased past him to the space in front of the wardrobe. Charles stayed in the hallway ready to intervene or help, whichever was needed. "'Becca, it's Molly, is there room in there for two or you gonna come out and talk to me?" There was a slight movement inside the wardrobe. "What you doing in there anyway, making room for all your new clothes?" She tried to keep the conversation light and the focus away from what was really causing Rebecca to cower in fear. "We've got more shopping to do in the morning. I've found a fab site where we can order make up. I think I'm due a new lippy." As she talked she had reached for Rebecca's hand and was gently rubbing it to calm her. "We could have a real girly pamper session, me you and Lucy. I used to work in a nail bar y'know." She heard a loud groan from out in the hallway. Rebecca must have heard it too because there was a quiet laugh from inside the wardrobe. "D'you think we could sit on the bed and chat, hon, 'cause this floor is pretty hard on my arse." An even louder snigger from the hallway and Molly's response of "Piss off Elvis" had the desired effect. Rebecca climbed out of the wardrobe and in to Molly's arms.

"I'm scared Molly. He's going to get me isn't he? He's going to hurt my beautiful boy and you and Charles and the little ones, all because I'm here." She was shaking and tears were falling down her cheeks. "I was asleep and I saw him, he wanted to punish me for talking. He was hitting me, chained me to the wardrobe, but there was more, he said I'd be sorry when he got back from Manchester. He was going to make me suffer." Glancing over her shoulder to make sure Charles and Elvis could hear what was being said, she saw them nod. Manoeuvring her over to the bed they were immediately joined by Manny. "Did he go to Manchester or was he on his way there when you were found?" "He went a lot, to see his brother he said. He always chained me up when he went there because he was gone a long time." "Oh, right. So he always told you when he was going?" "Yes, he didn't always chain me when he was around but he kept me in the bedroom. I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone."

Keeping the conversation going, she helped Rebecca back in to bed and pulled the covers over her. "But you did talk to someone didn't you. Was that on the last day? Is that why he was punishing you?" "Yes, one of the women brought me food, she had her veil off and I recognised her. She said I would be gone soon and Samir would be hers again. She called me names and spat at me." "Who was she Rebecca? The woman you recognised." "It was Amira, the woman who introduced me to Simon."

Molly could see she was exhausted and getting anxious again so changed the subject. Talking about rubbish, just to take her mind off her situation until she could fall asleep. She could see the two men had moved from the doorway and wanted desperately to join them to discuss what they'd just learned but Rebecca needed her more. Her initial feelings of pity for the other woman were gradually turning more towards compassion and friendship. "We need to get you a phone tomorrow. Any preference? What about one of them iPhone X thingies? I quite fancy one of them myself. And d'you know what, we forgot a bag and a purse. We're shit at this shopping lark." By this time both women were giggling. Molly was sharing stories of some of her worse fashion horrors including the bleached blond hair and sparkly spandex mini skirts. It was good to see the smile back on Rebecca's face. "Do you think you can sleep now?... I can stay with you if you want." She added quickly as she saw the fear beginning to return. "Tell you what, shove up." Nudging Rebecca and Manny across the bed Molly lay down with her and switched the lamp off leaving the faint glow from the landing to light the room.

"What was it like having a bleeding copper for a Dad? Did you do loads of naughty stuff just to see if you could? I would've." Molly kept the conversation focussed on the past rather than Rebecca's nightmare present. "Mind I did that and my Dad was just a dick." which caused Rebecca to draw in a shocked breath and then a snort of laughter. "My Dad could be a bit of a dick too," began Rebecca hesitantly. "He had a lot of rules that we had to stick to. Times to be in, people we could and couldn't mix with. Actually, Charles was my rebellion." That brought Molly to attention. "Bloody hell Rebecca, you must have had a really sheltered life if Charles was your rebellion." "Well, Yes, I suppose I did. I met Charles when I was 15, he was 16 and good looking even then and a bit of a bad boy, but it was Andrew I really fancied. He was 18 and Lauren, my sister was dating him and I just sort of hung around hoping he'd notice me and decide I was the love of his life and dump Lauren. He and Charles would get up to all sorts of mischief when their dad was away. Bunking off school and getting the train to London, using fake ID to get into pubs. I started tagging along and eventually somehow I always ended up with Charles so we became an item." Molly was trying hard to take in these new revelations about her husband. "And there was the time he dared me to have a tattoo so I said I would if he shaved his hair off. Andrew did it for him and Gina was livid." "And the tattoo?" Grateful for the dark to hide her blushes, Rebecca admitted, "I got a pair of lips on my left buttock. Was painful to sit down for a while." Molly was crippled with laughter by this point, "Rebecca, I always thought you were so prim and there you were, telling the world to 'kiss your arse'"

They continued to swap stories of their growing up in two vastly different environments and social circles but they were finding they had more in common than they could ever expect. Eventually exhaustion took over and they both fell asleep on either side of the bed, Manny a fur bolster down the middle. It was there that Charles found her in the early hours of the morning. He could have just left her, it would probably have been kinder to. She was exhausted and needed to sleep and Rebecca needed her. But he needed her too. He found he had difficulty sleeping without her by his side. So, being as quiet as possible so as to not wake Rebecca, he carefully lifted her into his arms, holding her tight against his chest and headed back downstairs back to their room. Molly didn't stir until he was manoeuvring her round to place her in bed. "What are you doing?" she enquired. "I'm putting you back in the right bed. I'm grateful that you've been helping Rebecca but I need you too." Sliding in behind her he pulled her tight against his front, letting her feel for herself just how much he needed her.

Wriggling backwards Molly began to rock herself against him, encouraging him, sliding one leg up and over his, bending it and using her foot to pull him closer. The movements were arousing her as well as him so when he reached down to push her pyjama bottoms out of the way she was already ahead of him. Pushing them down and off, freeing her movements to gyrate against him until he took control. Holding her hips while he slid into her warmth he groaned with sheer relief and pleasure. Moving together, their actions urgent, it didn't take long for them to reach completion before falling in to a satiated sleep spooned together.


	8. Chapter 8

The morning brought a flurry of activity around the house. Rebecca and Molly manned the kitchen producing a passable breakfast for all the guests. "I'm gonna have to do a grocery run feeding this lot." Molly looked at the depleted contents of the fridge. The children again chose an adult to follow. Noticing Jackson wearing a tool belt and carrying a surveillance camera Pip had been overjoyed. He had found a kindred spirit. Charles had to take him to one side and warn him of the dire consequences if he so much as looked at this equipment with a screwdriver in his hand. They had so far lost seven alarm clocks, two telephone handsets, a toaster and the TV remote to his inquisitiveness. Sam had attached himself to Rebecca, relief evident on his face that she was still there.

Abandoning Spunky who was just having coffee for breakfast, Lucy had spied the man with sausages and was now cosily ensconced on Dino's lap. "Honestly, that girl is shameless where food is concerned. By rights she should weigh as much as me not be a little moppet, it's unfair." Molly shook her head at her daughter's antics. Her daughter wasn't the only female in the household flirting with the men. "This, was in my bed again," said Elvis holding out a loudly complaining Kitty. The moment he placed her on the floor she turned herself around and began to scale his trouser leg. "Ouch, for fucks sake. Do something Molly." Molly did do something, she laughed. "I think she likes you Elvis. Don't fight it. Just embrace your inner cat lady." Charles, hearing the tail end of the conversation, snorted as he reached down and detached Kitty, "Come on puss, time to leave the big man alone." Accepting defeat the cat scampered out of the room and up the stairs. "She's going back in my bed isn't she?" "Yup" said Molly and Charles together sniggering.

Snagging a cup of coffee and sausage toasty Charles put his hand on Rebecca's shoulder, saddened to feel her flinch under his touch. "Do you feel up to talking a bit more?" He noted her eyes went to Molly who was busy taking the Micky out of Fingers who had been regaling her with tales of his new Captain. A female no less. "Do you want Molly with you? I'm sure the lads can manage the kids for a while." Her nod was all the indication he needed. Stepping over to Molly he spoke quietly in her ear, bringing her head up for a quick glance at Rebecca and a nod of agreement. "Sam, I'm leaving you in charge of this lot. When Mansfield, either of them, comes down, don't let them near the sausages. Dino, if you give her any more of your breakfast, you are responsible for cleaning up any aftermath. I'm just going for a chat with Dad and your Mum. Behave, all of you." Turning she threw an arm around Rebecca's waist and gave her a hug of solidarity.

The drawing room was currently the only room not occupied for one reason or another so Elvis, Charles, Spunky, Molly and Rebecca settled themselves in.

Once more it was Charles who took the lead. "Last night Rebecca you mentioned Amira, said she was at the complex. Do you know her other name? Is she one of these women who were taken by the police at the same time as you?" Handing her photos, he waited while she looked through them. Thinking carefully Rebecca was able to come up with her name remembering she'd laughed and commented how similar their names were Martin and Metin. "Her name was Metin, Amira Metin. She's not one of those three. I don't know who they are. Simon and Amira were the only ones I saw." Spunky had been busy entering data and came up with a photograph. "Amira and Samir Metin on their wedding day." "That's Simon." gasped Rebecca. "I don't understand how could she be married to Simon? Why would she set me up with her husband?" Rebecca was genuinely confused by this revelation but before anyone could begin to unravel things, Spunky revealed another photograph taken at the wedding. "And one with the parents. Look familiar?" Beside Amira stood a tall dignified man dressed in traditional wedding finery "Abdul Kahn" said Charles and Elvis together. Neither one happy with what they'd just discovered.. "Shit, his father in law was one of the top blokes in the Syrian Government." "Can someone tell me what's going on? Please?" Molly could hear the anxiety in Rebecca's voice.

"Well the bad news, 'Becs, it looks like you are married to a bigamist. The good news is, well, I suppose you're not legally married to the little shit." She looked to the others for confirmation, grateful when they nodded in agreement. "You might still have to go to court, I'm not really sure how this works but suffice it to say if he was still married to Amira when he married you then your wedding is probably null and void." "But why? Why would he marry me if he was already married? This is so fucked up." All heads turned in her direction with looks ranging from shock from Charles to glee from Molly." "Yay, Rebecca's one of us." Giggling at their reactions to her swearing all she could manage was, "Well it is."

Elvis, who had been silent to this point suddenly asked, "Before you got married, did you ever talk about Charles? Or Max and Andrew?" "Well, yes. All of them I suppose. Simon said he'd thought about joining up and I said I was glad he hadn't, I'd had enough of the army. When he asked why, I remember telling him how you were away a lot and that it was the same for Gina and Beth. He'd said something about dangerous missions and I said something like, it would have been easier if you'd done like Andrew and Max and been in intelligence even if it meant being away all week. God, I've been an idiot haven't I? He played me." Molly nodded sympathetically but Charles was looking with horror at Elvis. "Are you thinking what I think you are?" "It does sort of tie in, so it could be possible. Look, I'm going to have to go to London. This may be bigger than we thought. I'll leave the lads here and try and get back as quick as I can. I know we were keeping you off the front line Charlie but I think the goalpost just moved. Are you okay to take charge here?" Accepting his nod as confirmation, Elvis jogged out of the room and upstairs to collect some things.

Molly waited until he'd left the room before demanding, "What's going on Charles, what's he talking about?" Pushing his hands through his hair he looked at Rebecca and Molly sitting side by side on the sofa. "It looks like Samir Metin or Simon Martin, whatever he's fucking calling himself targeted Rebecca to get information on Andrew and the trial he was working on. The Armstrong case. The one that got them killed." Molly felt shock run through her. It had taken a lot to come to terms with the loss of her friends and she still missed them dearly. Rebecca froze, her face losing all colour. "That was not your fault Rebecca, don't even go there." "But…" "But nothing. He used you, he put you through hell. DO NOT let him bring this to your door. For fucks sake, we don't even know if they're linked." Molly was clutching at straws, trying to help her friend. Pleadingly she looked at Charles, needing him to play this down. "Look Rebecca, whatever happens or has happened with this nut-bar, you are not responsible. No one, least of all me or mum and dad blame you for wanting to moan about the army if you were being encouraged to. He's a manipulator, a con man, that's what he does. Let's just wait and see what Elvis finds out okay? Now, aren't you two supposed to be spending more of the kids' inheritance?"

Giving Rebecca a nudge, she led her through into the kitchen for a cup of tea before looking for phones. There was a pile of packages stacked up next to the table. "Looks like Christmas came early for someone." said Spanner with a wink. "Clothes for 'Becca" Molly clarified. "Mmmm, do we get to see them modelled?" Fingers who never missed an opportunity gave a salacious grin. "Piss off pervert." Molly laughed, "but if you carry them up to her room, she might let you see a pair of her…." "Her? Come on Molls, don't stop there." "Socks" Muttering under his breath about evil women, he gathered up the parcels and left the room. "Where're the kids and the other lads?" Chuckling, Spanner gave her a rundown of the various occupants of the house. Pip it seemed was still stuck like glue to Jackson and was now assisting him with installing the cameras. Sam, Brains and Mansfield were playing with Manny in the garden. "And little Miss Lucy has taken Dino off to introduce him to the delights of something called Lilo Sich?" "Oh god, poor man. Do you think we should rescue him." Rebecca sniggered. "Nah" shaking her head, Molly grabbed paper and pen and sat down at the table. "Priorities Rebecca. Food. We need to do a list and get some grocery shopping done or we'll be eating dog and cat food and I'm not sure how much of that we've got in."

While the women set themselves to compiling a grocery list, Charles sat with Spunky in the drawing room, trawling through pages and pages of data, trying to find any links between Elias Armstrong and Samir Metin. It had to be an arms deal but when and where. "Fucking hell." Spunky's expletive had him looking up. "The bastard had another two wives by the look of it. One a very wealthy widow, the other an even wealthier divorcee. One married before he met Rebecca, the other after." "Shit. Any connection with the military or The Hague?" Tapping in a few more details and following links, Spunky replied, "The divorcee, married to a prosecutor in The Hague. Married her about nine months after Rebecca. The widow he married twelve months before Rebecca, presumably for her money. Something had to be bankrolling his lifestyle and his cause." Adding the names of the two women to the board, Spunky noted down a few other details, one of which caught Charles's eye. "That one. She lives in Manchester? Rebecca said he went to Manchester often. Was it to see her I wonder. See what you can find out about her and her first husband. Is she the widow or the divorcee?" "The widow, early thirties, no children. Home in the Prestwich area of Manchester." Spunky went back to his search, looking for information on the dead husband. "That's fishy. Manchester Evening News, hatch, match and dispatch. The widow died three months ago, accident it says here. I'll see what else I can find out." Charles was trying to work out a niggle in his brain. Walking into the kitchen he interrupted, "Rebecca, you said he went to Manchester regularly. Was that just since you came back?" "No, before too. His brother lived there he said. He said the charity head office was there too." "Did you ever go with him?" "No, he said it was none of my concern and got angry when I pushed." "What about when you were in New York? Where did you live then? Did he travel much?"

Rebecca's head was spinning with the rapid fire questions. "Charles, slow down and give her chance." "Sorry." He took on board Molly's chastisement and waited impatiently for Rebecca to answer. "In New York we shared an apartment with an elderly couple who he said were his aunt and uncle. He said we couldn't afford our own place straight away. Aunt Josie had dementia so I helped to look after her while Uncle Tommy was out at work. Simon travelled quite a bit, setting up links for the charity he said. I think he may have come back to the UK a few times but I couldn't come with him because the charity was paying for his flight." "What was Tommy and Josie's surname, do you know?" "Caner. I remember because of that horoscope guy I used to read, Jonathan Caner." "Thanks." And he was gone as quickly as he arrived.

"Two more names for the board, Tommy and Josie Caner." "Caner? Isn't that a Turkish name?" asked Spunky. "No bloody idea but anything's possible. Look, this is too much for one person. Let's get a few more of the lads in here and dish out the names. I need to phone my Dad." "Just one thing before you do, the dead widow's husband worked for the MoD. Died on an official visit to Libya, bomb in the government car he was travelling in." "This thing gets murkier by the minute." commented Peanut who had just walked in. "Yeah, the widow's death came just as they moved back to the UK." Spunky and Peanut looked at Charles, "Coincidence do you think?" "Not likely. See if you can find out anything about her accident or any more about her husband." Leaving the two men to work, he went in search of Spanner and Dino and conscripted them to help Spunky, being more au fait with his way of working, much to Lucy's upset but Charles's promise of a chocolate biscuit soon had her smiling again as she toddled off in search of Molly and her brothers.

Deciding their bedroom would be the safest place to have an uninterrupted conversation Charles took the stairs two at a time. He could hear Jackson's voice patiently explaining to four year old Pip what he was doing and had to smile when he heard Pip reply, "I knowed that." Closing the door he checked the time before lying on the bed. They were five hours behind in Toronto so George, who had always been an early riser, should be up. He answered on the first ring.

"Charles, how's it going? Have they caught the bastard? How's Rebecca?" "Rebecca's doing okay. Nights seem to be the worst for her when she's not distracted. I think when this is all over it would be good if she got some professional help. She shows classic signs of PTSD. Molly, thank god, is really great with her. They've struck up quite a friendship, over my bank card I might add." Laughing he pictured to two of them gleefully looking at new iPhones as they had been when he'd interrupted them earlier. "Bugger, I didn't think about that. Look, I'll wire some money over for Rebecca to get what she needs." "It's okay George, we'll sort it all out later. For now she's got everything she needs, including support and security. This was just a quick update to keep you up to speed." "Thanks, appreciate it. So what's happening with the bastard? Any leads." "We're thinking he may have headed for Manchester but haven't got any sightings yet. You'll be pleased to know the marriage wasn't legal. He's had at least three other wives that we've found so far." "Bloody hell. Just keep me in the loop okay Charles and if there's anything I can do from my end let me know." Hanging up, Charles waited a few minutes before calling his own father. This wasn't going to be an easy call.

"Hi Dad, What you up to? Is Mum there?" "No, she's off to some boozy lunch with her old birds group. What's up? You phoning to tell us you're going to be six?" "Dad, I'm 35 not six. Have you been drinking too?" "I meant your family you cockwomble not you. So, come on, out with it. What's up? I always know when you're putting off telling me something. Oh god, she's not left you? What did you do? Whatever it was you'd better fix it." "Oh for fucks sake Dad, take a breath. No, Molly hasn't left me and what would make you automatically think I'd done something if she had?" "Past form son, past form. Now get on with it. I'm not getting any younger you know." "You're 62, hardly in your dotage. Anyway, you might want to get that drink…. Rebecca's back… she's staying with us actually…. It's really complicated Dad but she's in a bad way… yeah physically and mentally… burns, cuts, bruising everywhere Molly says. There's more Dad. It looks like he's a fucking terrorist, got three other wives so far…. No, no, Elvis and his team are here and three of the lads from 2 Section. We're all safe. It's just…" taking a deep breath he tried again. "It's just, there may be a link to the shooting, Andrew's and Beth's murders… No we don't know for certain… Elvis has headed to London to meet with MI5… It'd be best if you didn't, not yet, not until we've got an idea where the bastard is and what he's planning. I don't want to give him any more targets than he's already got…. I'm sorry, tell Mum the party's on hold for the time being. It'd completely slipped my mind."

It was a relief to have finally said it and much as he wanted to be with his parents if or when they found something out, he'd rather they be safe in Italy. "Is there anything I can help with from here, son?" "Actually yes, there is, a couple of things. It looks as if Simon is Abdul Khan's son-in-law… yeah, that Abdul Khan. I know he was one of your last cases. D'you think you could send me anything you can remember about him. I know the authorities will have stuff on file but you might remember things that weren't written down…. Great, thanks. Also, do you remember anything about Gordon Peter's death, worked for the MoD?" "I remember it well as a matter of fact. It was all hush hush at the time and was pretty much swept under the carpet. He was under investigation by Andrew's team for corruption linked with the Armstrong case. Died about two months before Armstrong was arrested. I remember Andrew speculating that he was the target and not the Libyan minister as reported." "What about his wife? Anything said about her?" As Peanut had said earlier, this was getting murkier. "She was quite a lot younger than him, possibly 20 years age gap. She wasn't exactly the grieving widow as I recall. I'm trying to think of her name... Nadia, that was it. She was from Tel Aviv if I remember rightly. You don't think she was involved do you?" "Not sure yet, Dad. Just information gathering at the moment. One last thing. Does the name Tommy Caner mean anything to you? Spunky thinks it's a Turkish name." "Not Tommy, Tumay, Tumay Caner. Spunky's spot on. Turkish radical involved first with Bin Laden. Married to an English woman. He's not good news son. I'll see what I can _remember_ about him and let you have whatever I get. Now kiss your gorgeous wife and kids for me and keep them safe." The line went dead but Charles could only stare at the ceiling, his mind reeling from all the new information until Molly's voice brought him out of his daze.


	9. Chapter 9

"Charles, the lads are going out for fish and chips, what do you fancy?" "Pish tips Daddy." a little voice echoed excitedly. Fish and chips was a rare treat and Lucy loved it. "Cod for me please." "Tod or daddy." came the faithful echo. Looking into the drawing room he saw the four Special Forces lads had been joined by Jackson who was adjusting the monitors. "You were spot on with the Turkish link Spunky. It's Tumay Caner. Part of Bin Laden's lot." He altered the name on the board. "Bit brazen to be living in New York if he was involved in the 9/11 attacks." "This thing's like your mum's arse," laughed Spanner to Jackson "Just keeps growin'" "Yeah well, it's still not big enough for a saddle like your mum's" was the pithy rejoinder. "Time for a break, I think. Come on, relax for five before lunch." Jackson switched on the recorders and trailed out after the others.

Molly persuaded them to eat in the dining room so that everyone could sit down together although she didn't push the issue of plates thinking of all the washing up afterwards. Even Lucy and Pip were allowed to eat out of the paper. It was good to just chat generally about sport and TV or films, having a rest from the drama that plagued them. Sam, being older and very mature for his age knew there was something going on and really wanted to ask but was frightened to in case it meant his mum had to leave. Molly watched him looking around the table, his eyes continually returning to Rebecca and decided that she would have a talk with him after lunch. Pip, ever curious had moved on to Peanut and wanted to know why he was called Peanut. He didn't look like a peanut. He leaned very close and Molly held her breath, fearing he might lick him to see if he tasted like a peanut, as he had on a previous occasion with Honey her Nan's friend. Thankfully he didn't, he merely whispered, "You can tell me later" and gave an enormous wink which had everybody sniggering. Lucy who had decided to give her daddy the privilege of her company for lunch was offering him bits of her fish. "Dud pish Daddy" "Very good fish poppet, now you eat some." "My eat tips." Beaming she helped herself to his chips, which was obviously fair exchange in her mind. "Oi, eat your fish monkey and stop nicking my chips." Giggling she offered him another piece of her fish. "Dud pish Daddy"

Looking at the rest of the group around the table, Molly realised just how lucky they were to have such amazing friends, friends who would give up their precious time off to keep them safe. Feeling a bit emotional, she began gathering up the empty papers, "Coffee? Tea?" There were nods and requests all round. Sam, knowingly pushing his luck asked for coke and laughed when he was given _the_ look. "Milk or juice or maybe just juice until somebody volunteers to go and do some shopping." "Well, I suppose me and Dino are in charge of requisitions so…" Peanut volunteered. "Thanks lads, I've done a list. Now, who's walking Manny?" She couldn't help laughing as Mike slid down in his seat. Thankfully Fingers, with a prompting dig from Brains, volunteered.

A slight movement from Rebecca caught her eye, she looked exhausted. "Why don't you have a bit of a lie down this afternoon. There isn't much to do, unless you want to watch Lilo and Stitch for the tenth time," the last almost whispered so little ears didn't hear. "Lucy will be going up for her nap shortly, maybe you could take her in with you?" She wasn't sure if that was a good idea or not but it would give Rebecca a purpose and an opportunity to rest. She also seemed to be able to sleep better if someone was with her, and while a two year old wouldn't offer much protection she was good to snuggle up with.

The lads started drifting off to their various tasks when Charles caught Rebecca and handed her his phone, "Call your Dad, he's really concerned about you. I know what you're thinking but honestly, I think he just wants to hear from you that you're okay." Nodding she took the phone and went to find a quiet, private corner which wasn't easy with so many people in the house. The children had disappeared into the snug which left Charles and Molly alone for the first time that day. Slipping into his arms, she rested her head on his chest. "How long do you think it will take to find him? I'm not sure I can keep the kids caged in the house and garden for much longer." "Hopefully Elvis will be able to tell us more when he gets back. It might be best to contact people and postpone Lucy's party though." "Oh fuck, I'd forgotten all about the party. Shit, the last thing we want is my lot descending on top of this." Giving him a brief kiss she moved out of his arms. "I'll start phoning round later but d'you think you can keep an eye on the boys? I might go for a lie down myself, I'm feeling a bit Brian Clough" Concern marred his forehead but he couldn't help smiling. He hadn't heard her use rhyming slang for quite a while. "Of course. Is there anything I can get you? I noticed you didn't eat much lunch." A truly terrifying thought crossed his mind, "You've not picked up a tummy bug from somewhere have you? The thought of twelve adults and three kids with the shits would just about push me over the edge. Did you put plenty of loo roll on that shopping list?" His genuine horror had Molly grinning, "No, I think it might be that time and lucky for you lot, THAT isn't catching." Pulling her in for another hug he reassured her they'd be fine and sent her off upstairs.

He popped into the drawing room to check if he was needed but the Special Forces lads were focussed on their various tasks and didn't need anything. Mike and Brains were with Sam and Pip in the snug. "Rebecca's taken Lucy for a nap and left your phone. She said 'thanks'. Looked like she might have been crying. God she's been through some crap hasn't she." Brains gave him a kick to shut him up, looking pointedly at Sam and Pip who were now ignoring the TV and listening to the adult conversation. Sighing Charles sat down, lifting Pip onto his knee and pulling Sam into his side under the shelter of his arms. "Things are a bit hard for your mum at the minute Scamp. Simon has been hurting her and might be hurting other people, that's why Uncle Elvis and the lads are here. They're going to help find Simon and make sure he's punished for hurting her." Pip listened but didn't really understand the full implication of what they were being told but Sam did. He had lived with Simon, he understood only too well. "She'll be safe here won't she Dad? The bloody bastard can't get her can he? What if they can't find him?" "Well firstly, you should be on a time out for swearing but I'll let it slide this time considering the situation and don't even think of copying him Pip! Secondly, we will find him, and yes your Mum, both of them, and you are safe here with me and the lads. I promise." Hoping he'd be able to keep that promise he looked across at Brains and Mike for agreement. "Oh aye, he'll get caught and go to prison for certain. The best the army's got are on it, and Fingers." Brains sniggered as Fingers walked into the room. "What? What did I miss?"

Wondering how much Sam remembered about his time living with Simon, Charles quietly asked, "Did Simon ever bring anyone to the house when your mum wasn't there?" "His brother came a couple of times but he sent me to my room when he did." Sam looked guiltily around before admitting, "but I sat on the stairs and listened." Charles lifted an eyebrow and waited, he didn't want Sam to feel he was being interrogated. "I think Simon was going to get us a new house because they were talking about different places. I'm glad we didn't move." Nodding, Charles continued to wait. He could see Sam thinking things over and remembering, "I remember one had a funny name, it was called Ramsbottom Lane in Shepherd's Bush." He started to laugh as he remembered. "I don't think I would like living in a ram's bottom." Pip now joined in his laughter. "No, I don't think I would either. Do you remember any others Sam?" asked Brains. Nodding he continued, "The others weren't funny though. There was Long Street in Leicester and Hambleton Drive in a place called Longsight. I suppose Longsight is a bit funny." Giving Sam and Pip a hug, Charles gave his trademark tilt of the head to Brains, indicating he should follow him, and left the room.

The pair joined the Special Forces lads in the drawing room. "Safe houses d'you think?" enquired Brains as soon as the door was closed. "Either that or centres of operation." Writing the three addresses on the board he quickly brought the others up to speed on what Sam had told them. "So, we know he's an only child, which means this 'brother' is likely the same man Rebecca mentioned who lives in Manchester. A fellow terrorist maybe?" Mused Spunky. "Right. So the brother needs to be added to the list with the wives." "Any word from Elvis?" asked Jackson looking up from the bank of monitors. "Not since the text to say he'd got a meeting with Montgomery. Hopefully he'll have something for us after that." Leaving them to get back on with their searches and monitoring Charles and Brains used Google Earth to look up the addresses. They were all pretty nondescript streets in ordinary housing estates, nothing to make them stand out or give them a clue as to exactly which houses to pinpoint.

Frustration was starting to hang heavy on Charles. It had only been two days but he needed some action or at the very least something he could get his teeth in to. Glancing sideways at the monitors he noticed a movement in the back garden. Moving closer he was surprised to see Molly and Lucy come into view. Ready to tear a strip off her for going outside without additional support he was stopped as Dino and Rebecca came into view, followed by Peanut with a tray of drinks. The two women looked exhausted despite having recently had a nap. He'd get Fingers on to kitchen duty again. He was a fairly passable cook and it wasn't fair to expect Molly and Rebecca to bear the burden of feeding 15 people three times a day. Sam, Pip, Mike and Fingers followed by Manny joined the group in the garden. Thankfully the children looked happy and not too disturbed by their earlier chat.

"Elvis on Face Time Bossman." The five men in the drawing room gathered around the screen. "Well Charlie, looks like you're sitting bang smack in the middle of a wasp's nest. We were right about the link with The Hague shooting. I won't go into too much detail on here but Montgomery has given us a liaison bloke, name of Sumner, he's been piecing together various threads trying to link the shooters to Armstrong and Rebecca has given us the name. Andre, the man who was with Simon at The Chequers, otherwise known as Andre DuMarc. He was a key member of Armstrong's legal team and also represented Abdul Khan in the past. I've passed on those three addresses you texted to me and they're sending undercover officers to investigate. Well done guys. Tell Kitty to keep my bed warm, I'm coming home." Before anyone had an opportunity to ask any questions he was gone from the screen.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully and everyone was glad to be heading for their beds. Charles waiting up for Elvis's return sat with Brains at the monitors, talking quietly. Brains asked what Simon was like, apart from being a wife beating terrorist. "I didn't like the man; there was an arrogance about him. Always tanned, Molly said it came out of a bottle, streaked hair. I always felt like he was trying to provoke an argument." "Sounds charming." As they talked both men suddenly sat upright in their seats. Elvis's car had just pulled into the Crescent and a second car slowed to a crawl, passing him before pulling into a parking space on the corner. "Neighbours?" Charles knew his neighbours and he definitely didn't recognise the two men sitting in the car. "Keep an eye on them, I'll let Elvis in."

Elvis had just reached the front door when it opened. He was aware of the car that had been following him since he left the M4. "There's a car followed me," "Yes, we've got them on the monitor. Any idea who they might be?" "Don't think they're spooks or organised crimes. I suppose I could just go and ask them." Elvis laughed. "Panic over" called Brains "they've gone into number 19 with small weekend bags." Breathing a sigh of relief and letting his shoulders relax Charles led the way into the kitchen. "Molly insisted we left you some supper. Cottage Pie. I'll just stick it in the microwave." While he was doing that, Elvis helped himself to coffee and sat at the table to wait. Finally, with the food in front of him and Charles opposite he began. "This is a real shit storm Charlie. Simon Martin aka Samir Metin, aka Steven Merton is up to his neck in all sorts of crap. You name it, he's doing it, procuring and selling arms, passing information, money laundering not to mention a couple of well-known attacks in Europe, his main claim to fame and the reason he was on MI5 radar in the first place. They can't find a link yet but he disappeared at the time of Armstrong's arrest. He's ruthless and to be honest, Rebecca's lucky to still be alive." He continued to eat while Charles took in the full implication of what his ex-wife and son had been exposed to possibly because of Andrew and himself. "Quite frankly, I think Rebecca's involvement was initially as a means to gain access to Andrew, and to a certain extent you, possibly to be used as leverage. That changed when Andrew and Beth died and Rebecca managed to get Sam to you and safety. From then on it became personal, about teaching her a lesson for taking away one of his toys. She had to be punished in whatever way he chose at the time. His cruelty ramped up each time something didn't go to plan. Becoming more and more violent and unstable.

"So what happens now? How confident are they of catching him this time and do they think Rebecca and the rest of the family are at risk?" "I think his ego is what puts you all at risk rather than what Rebecca knows. As far as he's concerned he's too clever for her to know anything of his activities but he doesn't like to lose and Rebecca is the one that got away. He won't like that." "Maybe I should be bait then, lure him out." Said a voice from the kitchen doorway. "Rebecca. How much did you hear?" Charles jumped up, inviting her to join them at the table. "Enough to know that he won't give up until he either kills me or is caught. It's me he wants so let him come and get me before anyone else gets hurt. We can't carry on like this indefinitely, hiding in the house." "That's really bra…" "No, no fucking wa…" both men spoke at the same time. "Look Rebecca" said Charles, silencing Elvis with a raised hand, "We don't know for certain that's what he wants and I'm not letting that fucking mad man within ten miles of you, Molly or the kids."

Before either Rebecca or Elvis could respond, Brains stuck his head round the door, "Guys, you might want to hear this." Following him back through they saw the news channel scrolling a 'Breaking News' story on the lap top.

"Police have tonight raided a number of properties across the country in response to information received from the Intelligence Service. This is part of a major crimes initiative believed to be linked to recent terror threats. We're going live to Susan Grimes in the Longsight area of Greater Manchester… "

"Is that…?" Brains was looking excitedly between the monitors, the lap top and the other three people present. It felt like they were making progress.

"People living in neighbouring houses were woken to what one man described as the sound of a riot, lots of banging and shouting as Police forced their way into the property. There is believed to have been three men and a woman in the property who have all been taken into custody and several evidence bags removed from the scene. A police cordon has now been established and I'm told forensic officers will likely be on site for many hours to come."

"Can you tell us if there was any indication of what the evidence bags contained or who the people from the property may have been?" "There is a lot of speculation around the neighbours, George, but the message from the Police is that it's too early to comment."

"Thank you Sue. We are now joined by Alasdair Simmonds, spokesperson for the London Metropolitan Police Force. Good evening, Sir. We've been hearing news of operations in several locations. What information can you share with us?"

"This is part of an ongoing investigation and officers were deployed to three specific addresses brought to our attention. Equipment has been recovered from two of the properties which we believe may be used in bomb making. The third property yielded a cache of high grade automatic weapons and a number of fake IDs including passports. Searches of the properties will continue until we are certain all evidence has been identified and removed."

"Can you tell us anything about the people who have been detained?"

"In total there have been seven suspects detained at the properties in Manchester and Shepherds Bush. The third property was empty at the time of the raid. There are five men and two women. I'm not at liberty to divulge any names at this time but I can add that one male and one female have been persons of interest to the authorities for several years."

Rebecca sank to the sofa as her knees gave way under her. "Have they got him? Is he the person of interest? Is the woman Amira do you think?" Tears were running down her cheeks as the pent up emotions began to break loose. Charles sat next to her and pulled her into his arms, cradling her as she wept. He wanted to reassure her but knew better than to assume anything. "Let's wait and see, okay?"

Elvis had moved away from the little group and was talking to someone on the phone. "You could have given me the heads up; instead I see it on the news… No, that doesn't fucking help… You promised to liaise with me so I can prepare my men for any repercussions… Can you give me any names? You're sure? Any sign that he'd been there? What about at his parents' or with any of his wives? Okay, yeah, right… well make sure you bloody do." Looking up he saw three pairs of eyes watching him, waiting expectantly for him to give them feedback from his call. "Sumner" he identified the person he'd been speaking to. "It's not Simon but they have got Amira Metin and Jai Khan, her brother, both of whom are on their wanted lists in both Europe and the US. They're hoping they may give something away as to his whereabouts."

Pulling herself from Charles's arms, Rebecca ran her hands through her hair in frustration and anger. "I've had enough, that bloody bastard has been controlling my life for three years. I can't take any more. It feels like he's still controlling me, punishing me, keeping me locked up. If I carry on like this, hiding behind you and your men, he's won. He's fucking won." "Rebecca, sweetheart, it's only been three days. You need to give us chance to do our jobs." Elvis tried to pitch his tone to sound conciliatory whilst letting her know they were in control of the situation.

"It's only been a few days for you but for me it feels like a lifetime. I can't remember the last time I felt in control of my life, I've let men take charge for me my entire life. First my dad, then Charles and Simon and now you and your men. I'm grateful Elvis, Charles, Brains but I need to do something for my own self-respect and the respect of my son. I need to show him I can be strong and take care of him." This was the most she'd spoken without prompting since she returned home.

"Okay Rebecca, what do you want us to do? But remember, I want you to feel strong but I'm not going to let you do anything that puts you or the rest of the family in danger. Sam loves you, as do Molly and the two youngsters; they'd never forgive me if anything happened to you." Looking across at Elvis, Charles raised an eyebrow, "God save me from independent fucking women." Laughing he broke the tension in the room. "What are you thinking Rebecca? You started to say something in the kitchen" began Elvis as Charles gave his friend a dirty look. "I think we need to draw him out, use me as bait if necessary. I don't know how we go about it but I hope you'll help me and we can end this torment." Inclining their heads in agreement it was decided that Charles, Elvis and Rebecca would go to bed and sleep on it while Brains continued monitoring the surrounding area from the comfort of the James' drawing room. Tomorrow they would come up with a plan of action.


	10. Chapter 10

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, unfortunately it didn't stay that way. Dino, who had taken over from Brains in the early hours had spotted a car with a lone male driver pass along the crescent at least four times in the space of an hour. A Sky TV van had then appeared at approximately 7am but as yet no one had got out of it and there was no one visible in the front leaving them to naturally conclude the driver must be in the back of the van. By 9:30 the skies had opened and rain bounced off the garden and pavements, keeping everyone confined to the house. Tempers became frayed. Sam and Pip got into an argument about which Lego belonged to whom, throwing pieces across the snug. They couldn't go in the playroom as it was currently being used as a bedroom. Threats of time out had no effect until Molly, having had enough of the bickering sent both boys to read in their bedroom. Lucy was driving her mad, banging in to everyone and everything in the crowded house with her bloody truck and Charles, Elvis and Rebecca were upstairs on the second floor in confidential discussion.

Finding the three 2 Section lads together in the kitchen, she gave them her most charming smile. "How would you three like a trip to East Ham to see Dave and Belinda? I need to get the kids out of the house for a bit and I'm sure with you three on guard duty we'll be safe as houses." "What does the Bossman say?" "Well I haven't told him yet but I'm sure he'll be fine with it." Not feeling quite as certain, the three men waited while Molly went to speak with Charles and were surprised when Charles, Elvis and Rebecca followed her back into the room. "So, what d'you think Boss are we going on a day out down that London?" Fingers was the first to speak. "Actually, it might not be a bad idea to get Molly and the children away. Also, if the house is being watched, seeing the three of you, leave with them will give the impression we're stepping down the security after last night's raids." Sitting down at the table, Elvis began to set out their plan to draw Simon in. They didn't want to underestimate him, it would appear too obvious if all security was withdrawn immediately so by dividing them up it would give the impression of less people on Rebecca. "Go in the cars, not on the train. Too many people on the trains. You can take mine and Molly's cars, two adults to each car. Share out the kids too. If you take different routes it means if you are followed they will have to divide too or decide who is most important to follow." Charles advised.

"Hang on," Molly interrupted, "If Simon is watching the house, how many people do you think he'll have with him?" Elvis and Charles looked at each other, not sure where she was going with this. "Two, maybe three. He couldn't have many more at once without looking suspicious. Why?" Shaking her head, Molly gave a 'just a minute' look and continued, "How many cars have we got in total?" "We came in two, then there's yours and the Bossman's." "Mine," chipped in Elvis, "Spanner and Spunky came together, Peanut's and Dino and Jackson came in a van." "So seven cars and a van?" "Molly, just get on with it." Charles warned. "Well, I'm thinking we could have a bit of fun. We could leave two people in the house just in case but the rest of us, divide in to the cars. Someone can take Rebecca. We have a drive around for a bit, different directions and routes making them decide who to follow. There's a few big multi-story car parks in the area, if you go to different ones and park up as if waiting for someone I can be at one and we can swap over so I can take Rebecca and the kids down to Mum's while whoever can wear Rebecca's hoody and comes back into the house with Her driver. What d'you think?"

"Could work." Said Charles, impressed. "Worth a shot. The lads in the house can let us know if the van leaves and we can use radios to keep in touch. Jackson brought some with him just in case. If it doesn't work, we just all come back." Elvis agreed.

"And whatever the result, the kids will have had an adventure and might stop falling out." added Molly. Rebecca, who had been listening with open mouthed wonder, finally spoke. "Will it not put your parents in danger if I'm there" "No, that's the joy of it. It's the last place Simon would think you'd be, if he even knows where my parents live. We didn't get on very well, don't forget," Molly squeezed Rebecca's hand to show past animosity was now water under the bridge. "If it works, I'll give Jade a ring to meet us at LDO and leave my car there. You could arrange to get it picked up and we'll stay at mum's until it's safe." Smiling at Charles she delivered the last of the plan. "If the tall slim members of the team all dress similarly in hoodies like Rebecca and keep their faces covered, the watchers won't know which one she is, or which car to follow when you leave the house." By this time a jubilant Molly was imagining her plan in action and which lads would look best dressed as Rebecca. Peanut and Spanner were immediately ruled out as was Mansfield who, despite having lost considerable weight in the past five years was still the wrong body shape to pass for Rebecca.

It was decided that Fingers, Dino and Jackson would 'be' Rebecca. Elvis, Mansfield, Spanner and Charles would drive the four cars with passengers, going on circuitous routes before heading to the car parks. Brains would leave shortly after with Molly and the children in Charles car and head directly to the car park. At some point, depending on followers/surveillance Rebecca and Brains would switch places, leaving the ladies free to head to London. It all sounded so simple. Molly kept all her fingers crossed that it worked.

At 12:00 on the dot the four men went to retrieve the cars from the parking bay, returning to collect their 'passenger' and move off. Peanut who was watching the monitors noted the Sky van move out of sight of the house before two men got out and into a Ford Focus which had been parked in the bay, near their cars. 'So,' thought Molly, 'They've only got two vehicles to follow the four cars.' Once the van and Focus were well out of sight and having checked for lurkers, Molly and Brains loaded the children and a minimal amount of luggage into the big 4x4 and set off for the car park as planned. Molly felt bad that the children would be having a thrown together lunch again but it was in a good cause. She'd packed sandwiches, crisps, fruit and juice boxes for on the journey. If it was safe they could maybe stop at a services but they couldn't guarantee it.

Reversing into a parking bay, Brains swapped seats with Molly and they waited. Charles's car had all the latest spec so the children were able to watch a DVD or listen to music while they waited. Molly had also brought some books and Sam was currently reading stories to Pip and Lucy who were happily joining in with the familiar bits. They had thought about who Rebecca should travel with and decided that Charles and Elvis would be the most obvious choices, she being precious cargo, and so they put her with Spanner.

The radio Brains was holding crackled to life. "We're parking up with our tail, a Ford Focus. Will let you when we're ready for home." came Dino's voice. "Elvis, you still got your tail?" "Sure have, looks like they've swapped the van. I've got a blue Audi following me. Not far from my car park now." "We're clear, looks like they've only got the two cars then. Heading into our car park just in case." Jackson reported. He was travelling with Mansfield which just left Spanner and Rebecca to report in. "I can't believe this is actually working." Came Rebecca's breathless voice. "Spanner says we're clear, no one following us so we'll head to Molly as planned. Thank you so so much everyone. I can't tell you how much this means to me. I really can't." It appeared their ruse worked and Simon had predictably followed Charles and Elvis.

Two minutes later Spanner's car drove into the car park and reversed into a bay on the level below Molly. He waited for ten minutes to make certain no one had followed him in to the car park before driving up and parking next to Molly, their passenger doors side by side. The exchange went smoothly with Brains giving Rebecca a quick hug and peck on the cheek before getting in with Spanner and pulling on Rebecca's hoody. Waving they moved off and Molly listened to each one report they were heading out.

Molly and Rebecca would wait until they heard the surveillance was back in place at the house before setting off for London. Lucy and Pip had fallen asleep in the back seat by the time they got the all clear. Sam chatted quietly with Rebecca, asking questions about what had just happened and how long they were staying with Grannie Belinda. He was looking forward to seeing Steven and was telling Rebecca about the Dawes family. Molly hoped she was doing the right thing. Charles and the children just accepted her family and saw past the untidy house and lack of airs and graces. Rebecca was different. She hoped the sight of Dave in his pants wouldn't shock her too much. Maybe she should warn her, but then again it might be fun to watch the two of them meet for the first time.

It was close to 17:00 by the time they arrived at the LDO to meet Jade. Thanks to the size of the Dawes family Jade drove a Vauxhall Zafira with seven seats. It took a matter of minutes to move child seats, luggage and passengers from one car to the other. Molly was just climbing into the passenger seat when she spotted a familiar face climbing down from a tow truck. "Baz? What are you doing here?" Molly hadn't seen Baz for over four years. He'd left the army to join an NGO working with displaced refugees across Europe. "Bossman phoned me, asked me to pick up his car and keep it in my old man's lock up for a bit. Hear you've been having some fun and games." Handing over the keys and giving him a hug, Molly shrugged, "Too many to go into now, need to get the kids some tea but we really must get together for a catch up when this is all sorted." Smiling he waited until she'd climbed into the car and closed the door, tapping the roof to indicate it was clear for them to leave. "Who's _that_?" Asked Jade with interest watching the good looking blond walking towards Charles's car. "That is Baz Vegas, or rather Barry Lucas. He was in the army with me in Afghan and before you ask, yes he's single, or he was the last I heard, and yes, he's more your age than Elvis so fill your boots. I'll even give you his number."

The short drive to East Ham passed without event. The children were getting excited, they loved visiting the Dawes clan and even more exciting, they were getting to stay overnight. "Mum's been busy tidying since you phoned. She's threatened dad to be on his best behaviour. She's sorted all the sleeping arrangements out. I hope you like bunk beds Rebecca." Jade giggled. "Me and Lily are stopping with Nan and Bella's gone to Magaluf with Dwayne so you two are in our room with Lucy. The boys are going in with Steven and Martin. I don't think anyone would want Paul's room. Not unless you've got a gas mask." Molly could see Rebecca's eyes getting rounder and rounder as each member of the family was mentioned. "Did I tell you Rebecca, I've got six brothers and sisters? I'm the oldest, thank god." Rebecca shook her head. "Are you sure this isn't an imposition?" "Not sure what one of them is," said Jade before Molly could answer. "But my dad's like a dog with two tails at the thought of a posh bird coming to stay."

As soon as the children were released from their seatbelts the boys took off running with Lucy stomping behind them shouting, "Gandad Dave" at the top of her voice. Dave leaned over the balcony waving and blowing her kisses before disappearing from view. "They have a mutual admiration society going." laughed Molly taking the large bag and linking arms with Rebecca as she followed them. Waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs with Lucy in his arms, Dave gave Molly and then Rebecca a quick hug before taking the bag. "Come on Becky, Belinda's got the kettle on. Unless you fancy a beer?" He marched off without waiting for an answer. Molly gave Rebecca a look of apology, "He shortens everybody's name. Except my mum's for some strange reason." Rebecca just smiled and moved after their host. She quite liked Becky, it sounded cosy and friendly. Maybe she'd keep it, a new name for a new start.

Belinda greeted her at the door with a hug too. She hadn't been hugged so much for years. Now she could see where Molly got her personality and kindness from. Belinda and Dave were a lot younger than she expected but she felt comfortable with them and could feel herself starting to relax as she settled into the old armchair. Sam and Pip had disappeared upstairs and she could hear them playing with two of Molly's brothers. A pretty young girl, introduced as Lily handed her a drink with a smile. "If I was you, I'd claim the top bunk. One of the slats is broken so the mattress sags down a bit on the bunk below." She advised. Chuckling Rebecca tried to remember if she'd ever slept in a bunk bed. She didn't think so.

A commotion at the front door had Rebecca searching around her for somewhere to hide only for the adrenaline to quickly disperse when she heard Molly shout "Nan" in a happy voice, echoed by Lucy shouting "Od Nan" which begged the question, was Nan odd or old? As it turned out she was neither. She came bustling into the sitting room, lugging carrier bags which she deposited on the sofa before leaning down to give Rebecca a hug. "How're you doing love? Bloody men. Can't live with 'em, can't shoot 'em. Anyway, I wasn't sure what you might need so I got you a bit of everything for your new house." She began pulling bedding and towels, cutlery and soft furnishings from the bags. Rebecca was so overwhelmed at the kindness of these strangers that she began to quietly weep, tears dripping from her chin. "Ere don't cry, I just thought what with you just being back in the country you might not have stuff but if you don't like the colours we can take 'em back and you can choose your own." Nan knelt down in front of her and pulled her into her arms, rocking her like a baby, patting her back. "You just let it all go love, a good cry's the best thing for you I say." "I'm so sorry" said Rebecca, frantically searching for a tissue before reluctantly resorting to using her sleeve. She hoped Sam was nowhere around to see that. Nan passed her the box of tissues and plonked herself down on the end of the sofa next to her chair. Taking Rebecca's hand, she reassured her, "Don't be sorry for letting your emotions out love. We've all been there. Well maybe not quite the same as you but doesn't mean we don't know what you're going through. So don't ever apologise for that." She smiled again at Rebecca as she leaned back and shouted, "Is anyone making a brew? I'm spitting feathers 'ere." making Rebecca chuckle.

Dave, with Lucy attached to his leg like a baby koala, limped into the room carrying a tray with several mugs of tea and a plate of homemade scones. "Stons Betta. Eat" Lucy obviously wanted to do just that and was trying to figure out a way to keep hold of both Dave and a scone. "Sit gandad." She instructed. And sit he did, letting her climb up into his lap, spreading jam and butter from her scone as she went. Molly, Belinda and Jade joined them and chat turned general, everyone making sure to include Rebecca. They ordered takeaway pizza for tea and the sitting room seemed to bulge at the seams with bodies, as children appeared from all corners of the house to eat. The only person missing was Bella who apparently was on holiday with her boyfriend. Despite the numbers the atmosphere was calm and relaxed and Rebecca felt soothed. It wasn't until she felt someone tapping her arm that she realised she'd fallen asleep. She opened her eyes to see Lucy clad in her pyjamas peering up at her. "You seep Betta? Time or bed." She heard running feet coming down the stairs and Molly appeared in the otherwise empty sitting room. "Lucinda James, I told you not to wake Aunty Rebecca." Molly was wearing her pyjamas too. "Her wayted up, me seep top now." Lucy beamed. "I'm really sorry, I thought I'd just let you sleep but madam here wants to sleep in the top bunk with you. She escaped while I was in the bathroom." "How long was I asleep? I hope I wasn't snoring? Did I drive everyone out?" Standing she looked blearily about. "Nah, it was getting late and everyone was pretty tired anyway. You slept for about four hours, it's half ten. And this little bugger should have been asleep hours ago like her brothers. Come on, I'll show you where we're sleeping."

While Rebecca had been sleeping, Molly had phoned Charles. She'd sent a text earlier to let him know they'd arrived safely but now she wanted to know what was happening in Bath. The cars had apparently all arrived back within minutes of each other and unsurprisingly the Audi had pulled into a space outside Number 2. Jackson had zoomed in with the camera but neither occupant was Simon so he mustn't be ready to strike yet. This led them to wonder if he just wasn't in the area yet or if he was keeping a low profile. Whichever it was, they were preparing to move on with the plan to lure him out.

On Monday, 2 Section lads would overtly pack up their cars and head off. The plan being that they would stay in the immediate vicinity of East Ham just in case, so they would be on hand if needed. On Tuesday, they would carry out a repeat of Sunday's fun and games to see who would be following this time. Three of the SF lads would then withdraw to a hotel, possibly to Gilly's at number 19 if they could figure a way to get there without being recognised. With numbers depleted they hoped Simon would get more confident about seeking some sort of contact with Rebecca. It all felt very slow and Molly desperately wanted to speed things up but she knew they had to stick with the old adage, "softly softly catchy monkey".

Molly had chatted with Charles about Rebecca's welcome to the family; Dave's shortening of her name and Nan's presents. "Oh god, she didn't nick them did she?" Laughing Molly replied, "Can't have done for a change. She said they could take 'em back and change the colour if Rebecca didn't like them. She really took her under her wing." She told him about Lucy's antics with Dave and the boys having fun with Steven and Martin. Finally, when she could put it off no longer she said goodnight. "Love you. Sweet dreams and behave yourselves. I don't want any wild stag partying while I'm gone."

Now, she lay in her bottom bunk feeling 18 again, looking up at the photo of Charles she'd wedged between the wooden slats of the top bunk. She could hear Rebecca snoring lightly and Lucy fidgeting and tried to shut her brain off. She needed to be alert tomorrow. It was highly unlikely anyone, Simon, knew where they were or that Rebecca would be recognised so she hoped to be able to get out of the house for some fresh air and try to bring back some sort of normality for the children. Climbing quietly out of bed she went to check the front and back doors and downstairs windows were locked one last time and peeped out at the silent deserted neighbourhood before going back to bed and finally to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Monday's in the Dawes household was usually manic but as it was still school holidays things were a little calmer. Molly was surprised to find the top bunk empty when she woke and quickly checked the time. 9:45! She'd slept right through which meant Rebecca had presumably managed to get a decent sleep too, without nightmares. Rubbing sleep from her eyes she paid a quick visit to the bathroom to brush her teeth and went in search of the rest of the family. The four boys were in the sitting room, still in their pyjamas, eating cereal and watching Children's TV. In the kitchen her Dad was presiding over the frying pan while Rebecca sat at the table pouring tea into the two mugs from the huge family teapot. "This teapot reminds me of the old police station where my Dad worked when I was young. The desk Sergeant used to brew tea for the whole station in it. The tea was so dark and strong you could almost stand your spoon up in it." She smiled at the memory, handing a mug of hot tea over to Dave. "The nearest that thing's been to a cop shop is probably as evidence for shop liftin'. So your old man was a bobby eh? Bet he was a proper one too. Not like today, mostly those community support officer thingies round 'ere. Bloody May, cutting budgets. I didn't vote for this lot."

Deciding now would be a good time to let her presence be known before Dave went off on one of his rants, Molly took hold of the door handle. "You're right Dave. Things have changed a lot since Dad retired. Now, is there anything else I can be doing while you're busy over there?" "Just grab us a couple of plate love, and a little one for my Lucy and it'll be full English all round." Molly couldn't remember the last time her dad had made breakfast. Where was her mum? Pushing open the door fully she stepped in to view. "Good morning, something smells good." "Pull lish" explained Lucy waving her fork around. "We had no porridge so the little un agreed to a full English. There's still some bacon and sausage in the fridge if you want to make yourself some." Dave sat himself next to Lucy with a plate full of bacon, sausage, black pudding, eggs, beans and fried bread making Molly's stomach suddenly somersault, perhaps she'd stick with toast. "Where's mum?" "Belinda's having a lie in and Paul won't be out of his bed 'til dinner time at the earliest so I've been entertaining Becky here with stories about when you were Lucy's age. Can you manage there darlin'? Let me cut that bacon for you."

"Your dad's lovely." Whispered Rebecca when Molly sat down. "He's really made me feel welcome. And I managed to sleep all the way through the night for the first time in goodness knows how long." "Must be the good clean London air." laughed Dave catching the tail end of the conversation. Rebecca laughed at his joke while Molly rolled her eyes. "So what you girls up to today? Paintin' the town red? The kids'll be fine with me if you want to get out for a bit." Molly looked across at Rebecca, "I'm not sure…" "Oh, right. Forgot about that. Hang on a minute though." He left the room and Molly heard him on the stairs. He returned minutes later, his arms full of fabric. "Shazza kept buying these for your mum but they're not her thing." Taking them from him, Rebecca shook out a lilac coloured pashmina, then a sky blue one and finally a pale green one. "What d'you think Molly, maybe we could?" Taking the green one Molly stood and draped it over her hair, tucking it around her neck. Rebecca did the same with the blue, completely covering her hair and partially obscuring her face. "Well you won't get a second look on the Barking Road in those but you might gonna need to change out of your pyjamas" Dave's backhanded compliment made both women laugh. "It would be good to get out. Please." Rebecca smiled at Molly who nodded her agreement. "Yeah okay, for a bit. You sure you don't mind having the kids?"

An hour later the two women dressed in trousers, long sleeved tops and their pashminas were walking down to the market, looking in the shop windows. "We still didn't get you a bag and purse." Molly reminded, taking that as the mission for their excursion. Molly also stopped at a cash point and took out some money to give to Rebecca. "I can't, you've done so much already. I can't take your money." "Of course you can, you need something to put in that new purse. Besides, how you gonna pay for the MacDonald's without money." Molly laughed at the expression on her face. "Go on Rebecca, admit it, you're hooked. I saw you looking when we passed. We can take happy meals back for the kids. You'll be everyone's favourite Aunty. I'll send my mum a text telling her we'll bring food in." They spent another happy hour wandering and window shopping. Molly pointed out the nail bar where she used to work and the Army Recruitment Office. She told Rebecca the story behind her joining the army. "Thank goodness for Proud Mary and her loose morals then. You're the best thing that ever happened to Charles. He's so happy and his love for you is palpable." "I'm not sure what that means but thanks. I love him too and believe me I can't even begin to tell you what he and the kids have done for me." Giving Molly's arm a squeeze she turned her in the direction of MacDonald's. "Come on, I think I'm ready to try a Big Mac."

As Charles walked across the hall a phone rang. Realising it was the landline he shouted for Elvis before answering. "Hello, James speaking." He could hear breathing at the other end of the line but no one spoke. "Can I help you?" The line went dead. "Well, it's either him or some call centre but I'm inclined to go with the former." Elvis nodded agreement. "How has he got this number? I thought you were ex-directory." "We are, but Rebecca had it for Sam. He must have her phone or her address book. Thank god she never had any numbers for Molly. In fact, before they left for the US Rebecca only saw Molly at the solicitor's for the first time in four years. She was certainly surprised to see her. They didn't exactly hit it off when we were first together." "We need to get Jackson to set up a trace on that line. I can guarantee he'll phone back. The silent treatment will be to put the wind up Rebecca."

"How's it going with the ladies? Have you heard from Molly?" Charles grinned at his friend, "Apparently Dave's made another conquest. Fuck knows how he does it. Seems everything is great, Molly's family are doing what they always do and surrounding her with love. I swear that family will take anyone in." "Well they did take you in." Elvis had met Molly's family on several occasions and thought Charles lucky in his in laws, especially Nan. She was brilliant, shared his sense of humour and could drink any SF soldier under the table. He was looking forward to Lucy's party just to see her again.

They were interrupted by a shout of, "Got it!" from Spunky in the drawing room. They found him fist pumping the air and grinning as he drew lines on his board linking Martin and Armstrong. "What have you got?" "Drum roll please... Martin is only Armstrong's bloody son! There's no marriage between Armstrong and his mother, whose maiden name by the way was Pratt which apparently is Martin's real name," he couldn't help but grin when he told them. "And Armstrong wasn't named on the birth certificate, just 'father unknown' but it looks like she was some minor clerical worker in his company for a few months before Martin was born. Left suddenly with a huge settlement and a bun in the oven. Armstrong didn't openly acknowledge him but his school fees were paid by a company owned by Armstrong." "He could have been the son of one of Armstrong's close people." Charles felt the need to get everything clear before jumping to any conclusions. "Could have been, but wasn't. I found some photos of Armstrong in his teens and he's the spitting double. Seems Armstrong was badly scarred by a chemical attack when he was he was 22 and had extensive plastic surgery in America. He was also called Elias Martin then, changed his name to Armstrong when he moved to the UK." Charles was astounded, none of this information was on file or apparently known to the authorities. "Where did you get all this stuff?" he asked Spunky. "I'd love to tell you mate but all I can say is I have my sources and more than a couple of friends in slightly dubious organisations." Elvis patted him on the back and grinned, happy that they finally had the missing link. "Right, I think this calls for a celebration. Well done Spunky, great work."

As they moved to the kitchen, Elvis began to speculate, "The chemical burns Armstrong got, do you think he was already involved with arms even then? This might take the team at the Hague even further back with his crimes which can only be a good thing." "Hmm, could also be why Martin likes using chemicals to maim his victims, his step-father and ex girlfriends. God knows how many he's hurt in that way. Thank fuck he hadn't got to that point with Rebecca." They gathered up several bottles of beer and headed back, only getting half way across the hall when the phone rang again, following the same routine, silence, breathing and then the line going dead. Once again the caller waited for Charles to ask if he could help before hanging up. The lads were all gathered in the drawing room for a briefing so Charles brewed the coffee and carried it through to them, adding the tin of broken biscuits to the tray. "In case any of you haven't guessed, those two phone calls were more than likely Martin trying to mess with Rebecca's head which means he still thinks she's here. Jackson, can you get a trace on it? I doubt he'll give up his game any time soon." Grinning, Jackson was in his element. This is what he excelled at. "The watchers are still out there too only they had to move when the old biddy from number 2 came out and knocked on their window. Presumably to find out what they were doing there." "Oh yes, old Martha is notorious for moving people on. We get a lot of Austen fans and location scouts using the Crescent. She gets a bit possessive about her parking space. Where are they now?" "Outside number 19. Different car but the same two blokes." Charles started to laugh; a real belly laugh and it took him a couple of minutes to get himself under control. "They'll not last long there. Martha will have the Police on them for kerb crawling or immoral behaviour. The local gossip is that Gilly and her husband at 19 are swingers. Very risqué." Mansfield's eyes lit up at this and Charles could see he was gearing up to ask questions so forestalled him. "They aren't of course but they quite like the notoriety. Now, next steps. As Martin – Metin whatever believes Rebecca to be here, I think it's safe to carry on with our plans. Brains, Fingers, Mansfield you head down to London and liaise with Molly. She'll let you know what's needed down there. Elvis can you get in touch with Sumner, see what's been gleaned from the arrests made the other night and Spunky can you Spanner, and Dino get in touch with any contacts you might have, see if we can identify the watchers. Peanut you're on monitors for the time being, okay?" Getting affirmative answers from everyone he left them to it and went to let Manny out for a run around the garden.

He could do with going for a long run himself he thought as he watched the dog work his way around the garden, sniffing out familiar smells. When he got to the children's playhouse, however, he stopped. Circling the little structure he cocked his leg and peed on the door. He had never done that before, understanding the playhouse belonged to the children he always left it alone. It had their scent on it so he didn't need to mark it as his. As he watched, the big dog continued to sniff around the playhouse and the garden shed next to it. Something was obviously disturbing him. Charles walked into the garden, "What have you found boy? What's going on?" Hearing his voice the dog began to bark, pawing at the playhouse door. Suddenly wary, Charles called the dog back inside, closing the door and calling for Elvis and Spanner. "Someone's been in the back garden, near or more likely in the children's play house." "How the hell have they managed to get in? We've got cameras watching everywhere; we're monitoring 24/7." Elvis was having difficulty believing what Charles was saying. "Spanner, get Dino to go back through the tapes of the back for the last 24 hours and then come back in here." Spanner went off to do what he was asked and Elvis and Charles continued to stare out of the window at the playhouse. "What makes you think some one's been in it?" "Manny. He must have smelt a strange scent on it because he peed on it, marking it as his territory. He's never done that before with any of the children's things. Something doesn't feel right."

With the return of Spanner the three men began plotting out various scenarios and what responsive action they should take in each case. Could they deal with it themselves or did they need outside support. Spanner was the weapons and explosives expert of the team so Charles and Elvis looked to him as leader on this one. He began to write down hypotheses, looking at best to worst case scenario. The lads from 2 Section came in carrying their Burgens. "We're off Bossman. Any message for the wife?" Mansfield shook his hand and gave him a manly pat on the arm. "Just tell her to keep her eyes open and stay safe." "You do know you're giving us the most dangerous mission," complained Fingers, "anything can happen in that London." Grinning Charles shook his hand. "Well the same goes for you then, keep your eyes open and stay safe." He turned to the final member of the trio. "I know, stay focussed, stay alert, stay alive. Duly noted Boss. I'll try and keep the kids out of mischief." As he said kids, he inclined his head to indicate Fingers and Mansfield who were heading for the door. "Thanks Brains. Keep me updated, okay. There shouldn't be any problem down there but you just never know with this guy." He walked the men to the door, taking time to scan the street and clock the watchers as he waved them off.


	12. Chapter 12

He was just going back into the kitchen when he heard Dino shout, "I don't fucking believe it!" Moving swiftly into the drawing room he stepped over to where Dino was rewinding a small section of video. Elvis and Spanner stood behind him and Jackson and Spunky left what they were doing. Only Peanut stayed on task. He started the video playing. It was dark so obviously night-time. Charles looked at the time and date stamp. 2:47 this morning. As they watched, a small bird flew down into the garden before hopping up and through the open window of the playhouse. The video played for another ten minutes with no further sign of the bird. "So it was a bird that Manny could smell? Nothing untoward there then." Said Jackson preparing to move away. "Look carefully, and this time use your brain as well as your eyes." Instructed Dino before restarting the video. Charles again saw the bird fly into the garden, hop up and through the window. There was something wrong with that bird, it didn't move right, it made no attempt to peck at the ground for bugs or worms. It moved directly to the window. It wasn't accidental the way it flew in, it did it deliberately. "Play it again Dino please and this time slow it down and zoom in if you can." This time as it played, Charles could clearly see it. He looked to Elvis to see if he was seeing the same thing. "That's not a bird, it's a fucking drone. Is it still in the playhouse?"

"I've only got up to there but I'll carry on looking to see if it leaves. Whatever it's there for, that's targeting the kids. Nobody else would go in there and certainly not Rebecca." A note of anger had entered his voice as he spoke.

"We shouldn't have missed that," Elvis paced up and down the empty hallway. "How the hell did we miss it? Suppose the kids had still been here." "Don't look for blame here Elvis. I would have missed it at first look. Quite a natural thing, a bird coming into the garden. Though now I think about it carefully, I don't know many little birds that fly at night but that wouldn't have occurred to me if Dino hadn't indicated there was something off and made us watch again." "So d'you reckon it's surveillance or something more sinister? Dino, any sign of it leaving yet?" Elvis continued to pace. "Nope, looks like it's still in there. What do you want us to do? I can suit up and investigate." "Let's try remote first, I don't want anyone near that playhouse until we've done everything we can to make sure it's safe. Peanut, you're up."

Ten minutes later Peanut stood in the doorway to the garden, fully clothed in protective gear. The small remote robot currently trundling its way across the garden controlled by the tablet in his hands. It reached the playhouse and an arm was extended to flip the catch holding the door closed. The others, with the exception of Spunky and Jackson who were still in the drawing room, gathered around a laptop watching its progress. Each one jumped at the loud explosion. "Shit, it was a fucking bomb!" Spanner was the first to react. "Christ, one of the kids could have opened that."

In the background Charles could hear sirens getting closer and closer, pulling him from the fug that had descended on his brain. "Elvis, we need a cover story for the neighbours. Contact Sumner and Montgomery. The bastard is targeting my children." As he said it he started to shake. Thank god for Molly's idea of taking them all to East Ham. He dropped to a squat, his head in his hands as he tried to get control of his thoughts. He was aware of knocking at the door and voices in the hallway but his head couldn't focus on anything but an image of his beautiful little Lucy opening that door to get her truck. Three fire fighters passed him, heading into the back garden where Spanner, Dino and Peanut were already in control of the blaze with the garden hose and sacks. The damage was mainly contained in the site of the playhouse, the intention obviously to harm whoever opened the door.

Happy that the fire was out, the fire fighters left with the appliance, leaving the investigation guys and the police officers behind. Elvis, taking charge had shown them through to the dining room, he wasn't sure how much Charlie wanted to tell them so kept them out of the drawing room. Leaving them there he went to find Charles. "Charlie, you need to pull together pal, we need to give them some answers. Just keep focussed. The kids and Molly are safe. Manny was brilliant. Come on mate. They're waiting." Charles had seen more explosions and their aftermath than he cared to think about but this was personal, this was his home, his family. "Let's get the bastard." He said with determination, standing and leading the way through to the dining room.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, I'm Major Charles James, Warminster Garrison, and my friend Captain Elvis Harte, Special Forces. This is my house." Shaking hands with the four emergency services personnel, he invited them to take a seat around the table. "I have to ask that everything discussed in this room remain highly confidential. We are currently part of an anti-terrorist operation and it's essential that there be no leaks you understand." A quick rap on the door heralded Dino with coffees and the broken biscuit tin, grinning as he saw their faces take in the offering. "Don't ask." He advised before leaving. Addressing the senior police officer, Charles assured him that the Chief Constable was aware of the situation. "My ex-wife has recently been rescued from a terrorist cell and has been staying here with my wife and children. You may be aware of the case yourself, Rebecca Martin, rescued when the complex just outside of Glasgow was raided last month." Both police officers nodded, the younger one commenting, "Wasn't that the women who had been beaten and chained up in a room for three months? Her husband was thought to be part of the cell?" Charles heard the female fire investigator mutter, "bastard" and smiled. "He is and he's still out there. With the backing of MI5 we have mounted a protection and investigation operation. We've been aware of surveillance on the house for several days and this morning we received a couple of silent phone calls which I believe to be him."

Sitting forward, Elvis took over the narrative. "I have five members of my team here, each with the skills needed for counter terrorism. This morning Major James's dog reacted irrationally when sniffing around the playhouse. We scrolled back through the security footage and identified what we believed to be a drone fly in through a window. Our bomb disposal guy was using remote control robot to investigate when the device exploded. Presumably the children were the target." His fists were clenched in front of him on the table. "Fucking bastard." The fire investigator muttered again. "Indeed. This monster will stop at nothing to get to Rebecca and we have no intention of letting him." "Where is Mrs Martin if you don't mind me asking?" Queried the police officer. "And your wife and children?" Asked the fire investigator.

"I can't go into specifics but they were taken to a place of safety yesterday. Martin isn't aware of this as yet and we need it to remain that way." Nodding, the four visitors looked around at each other. "Perhaps if we could take a look at the site of the fire, your man might be able to assist with our report." Elvis immediately stood and led them through in to the garden where Peanut and Spanner were currently trying to retrieve any evidence from the debris.

Charles stayed with the police officers. "Your neighbours are going to have questions about the explosion and we need to be able to give them some answers." "Of course, I understand. Can I suggest something simple, perhaps a gas bottle for the barbecue exploding?" "Hmm, might work. Same message to any lurking press." "Don't you think the Chief might want to handle this one himself Sir, considering." The lower ranking officer was quite right as became evident when the senior officer's phone began to ring, indicating the Chief Constable as the caller. The mobile phone ringing almost blocked the sound of the land line ringing. Jumping from his seat Charles dashed to pick it up before the caller rang off. "Hello, Major James speaking" Again there was silence on the other end of the line. Charles stuck his head around the drawing room door to check that Jackson had begun the trace. Getting a thumbs up, he waited before memory of the playhouse explosion kicked in and he could feel his anger rising. "I know it's you Martin, you fucking bastard.. you want to pray the Police catch you before I do after today's …" the dial tone sounded. "Fuck, why didn't I keep my calm?" He berated himself. "Jackson, any luck?" Shaking his head in the negative, Jackson went back to monitoring the cameras.

A knock on the front door coincided with the two officers stepping out of the dining room. "That'll be the Chief, his secretary just called to say he was on his way." Moving past Charles, the young sergeant opened the door to let him in. "Stuart" Charles said in surprise, "I didn't realise you were back in Bath. Does George know?" Stuart Strong had been a rising young star at the Met under George, Rebecca's father. " "New appointment. In fact today is my first day. I was just getting familiar with current cases when this address flashed up on my screen. I was sorry to hear about Andrew and Beth." He offered his sympathies before continuing, "So what the hell's going on Charles?" They all moved back into the dining room where Charles and the two officers gave him a brief rundown on what had happened and the current situation. He agreed the statement to be issued to the neighbours and press and dismissed the two men to get on with reassuring local residents.

"So how bad is it?" Strong didn't need to elaborate for Charles to know he was talking about Rebecca. He was surprised it had taken him this long to ask. Charles had always thought Stuart and Rebecca would get together once their divorce was final and they had dated for a while but then Strong had moved up north and Rebecca had married Martin. "It's bad, really bad. Your predecessor had been kept informed by the Met and MI5 but wasn't keen to commit any resources until he absolutely had to. Not that I can blame him with all the cut backs. None of us know how long this could go on for so it could potentially be a very expensive operation. As it is, Elvis and his team and three of my old platoon are giving their time and expertise for free. Come through to the drawing room, I'll introduce you to some of the guys." Leading the way, he glanced back at Strong, "She's not here by the way."

Giving a grimace at his transparency, he followed Charles across the hall. "Jackson, in charge of comms, technology, surveillance. Dino, is a profiler and analyst. Spunky here is our intelligence guy. He's been liaising with the guys up in Glasgow as well as London, Leicester and Manchester, not to mention his million other contacts. They're all doing a top job. It was Dino who spotted the drone. The rest of us missed it." The three SF men acknowledged the introduction but continued with their tasks.

Charles and Strong looked through all the information on the board and Charles was surprised to see an addition that had not been there on previous days. It was the medical report from the hospital in Glasgow that had treated Rebecca, it contained not only a record and photographs of her condition on admission but also a list of her previous injuries. "How did you get…" "Best if you don't ask." Spunky had contacts in many quarters, mostly above board but one or two slightly shadier and at this moment in time he was prepared to use whatever means possible to get the information they needed. The medical report, whilst not essential, gave them an insight in to Martin's character and showed a disturbing escalation in his violence towards Rebecca. "It looks like he's coming unhinged. Fuck knows who the brunt of his anger is now we have Rebecca but I guarantee someone is being used as a punch bag. That level of violence doesn't go on hold." Dino had raised a valid point. If Simon was in the area they could check the local hospitals for any victims of GBH or domestic violence.

Moving on, Charles took Strong into the garden. "The fire investigators are with our explosives expert going through the debris. It was only a small explosion in comparison but it could have caused significant injury if not death to a child." He closed his eyes and drew deep breaths as he said it to try to fight the need to vomit. Spanner was still with the group but there was no sign of Elvis. Charles once more made the introductions before taking a step back and listening to the conclusions of the investigation so far. Peanut leaned down and picked up the remains of a small metal ball along with a handful of tiny ball bearings. "The bird-drone was a homemade incendiary device. Very professional. It attached itself at the bottom of the door so the slightest movement would trigger it. We should be thankful Manny didn't push at the door when he was sniffing around. It must have been the adhesive substance that it was coated in that he could smell. He'd make a great explosives dog if you ever want to get rid of him." Smiling Charles shook his head. That dog had a home for life and a shit load of treats to look forward to. "It would appear to have a movement sensor attached to what I presume was the head." The female investigator picked up a small device with wires. "The main part of the bomb consisted of the sphere, Peanut, "She smiled as she said his name, "is holding filled with ball bearings and gunpowder. A large quantity of which were found embedded in the side of that tree." The tree stood two metres away from the door of the playhouse. "We've enough to write our report, a copy will be sent to you Chief Constable."

While Stuart spoke with the investigators, Charles looked around his garden. Apart from the burnt out remains of the playhouse there were splinters of wood and parts of broken toys scattered round. The buckled wheels and handle of Lucy's truck brought a lump to his throat. She adored that toy. It was the last present from her parents the Christmas they died. "Where's Elvis?" "He went inside to make some calls, probably in the snug. He said something about Kitty when he went in."

Charles found him in the snug with the cat on his lap, phone to his ear. Quietly sitting himself down he waited, taking a closer look at the cat. She was snuggled tightly in to Elvis, her tail twitching angrily. "She was in the tree." Elvis explained, catching Charles's look. "She's fine though, just a bit shook up." He continued to stroke her. "Sumner is on his way from London. They have some intel he wasn't prepared to share on the phone. Montgomery is taking things higher up, making this an official operation so we now have legit access to all the usual resources for as long as we need. Not that he expects it to take that long." Charles leaned back, staring at the ceiling, tugging at the hair on his nape. "What the fuck do I tell Molly and Rebecca?" "The truth. Tell them the truth, it'll keep 'em alert. Nobody was hurt. The garden can be restored. Thanks to her plan he failed." "I just feel so bloody useless, waiting for him to strike again. I need to be out there, actively doing something." A knock on the door interrupted their conversation.

"Stuart, come in, sorry I'd forgotten all about you. You remember Elvis don't you. Stu's the new Chief Constable. Great induction eh?" The two men shook hands and settled back in to go through the events of the past week.


	13. Chapter 13

"Belinda, Molly, do you want egg on toast or beans on toast?" Rebecca was once more in the kitchen with Dave helping to make lunch. The two women looked at each other and grinned. Rebecca was so much more relaxed than when they'd arrived four days ago. She had come out of her shell thanks to Dave and his constant banter. She'd been to the pub with him where he introduced her to his mates as our Molly's mate. He'd even told one bloke that she was that famous actress that was in the Avengers films and called her Gwynny the entire time they were there, telling them her visit was hush hush so they had to keep it quiet. Fingers, Brains and Mike had tagged along just to be on the safe side but on the whole they'd been discreet. When somebody commented about the three blokes watching them, Dave had shrugged and whispered, "Bodyguards." Rebecca was laughing hysterically as she told Molly and Belinda about it.

The children were happy, having a great time, going out with Nan and Jade in the car or with Dave and Belinda to the park. Their three 'bodyguards' hadn't come to the house but had been in the distance every time one of the family went out, watching and alert for anything untoward. They kept in touch with Molly and with Charles by phone, giving a full report at the end of each day, not that there was anything much to report. It seemed Simon's attention was still on the house in Bath. Charles had told Molly about the IED but she'd chosen to keep it from Rebecca, deciding she didn't want to reignite feelings of guilt, especially as she was doing so much better. He'd told her about the phone calls which were increasing in frequency and how he'd cocked up the day of the explosion by losing his rag. Molly wished she could be there with him, to stop him from taking everything on his own shoulders.

On a lighter note, he had mentioned Stuart Strong, the new Chief Constable, saying it was good to know someone familiar who cared about the family was there to call on if they needed help. Molly in turn had been entertained to watch Rebecca blush when she mentioned his name. She waited until the children were in bed, Dave keeping an eye on Lucy in the top bunk until she and Rebecca went to bed. No doubt he'd be asleep too before then but he wouldn't let any harm come to his granddaughter. Belinda, Molly and Rebecca relaxed in the sitting room with a bottle of Baileys which had been unearthed while hunting for the gin the previous night. "So Becky, who's this Stuart that our Molly mentioned the other day then? He your boyfriend?" Belinda jumped straight in at the deep end. Looking to Molly for rescue didn't work; she just shrugged and raised a questioning eyebrow. "He was one of my dad's officers, always seemed to be around while I was married to Charles. If I'm honest…" "Oooo, definitely be honest ay, Molly" "Yep, honesty is the best policy and all that." "If I'm honest," laughed Rebecca, "I really fancied him even though I was in love with Charles. You know, sort of like when you fancied Iris Elba or Ben Aldridge. You know nothing will happen but he had one of those ovary bursting smiles." She was blushing fiercely by this point. Molly sat open mouthed. She'd never even heard mention of this bloke before. Belinda sat forward, topping up their glasses. "So what's he look like?" Taking a long drink Rebecca closed her eyes as she let the alcohol warm her stomach and her memories warm her brain. "He's tall, taller than Charles, about 6'4", I should think. Broad shouldered and slim hipped, long legs and muscles in all the right places." This last brought a guffaw from Molly and a snort from her mum. Rebecca giggled, realising what she'd said. "Yes well, that was after we separated. I would never cheat on Charles no matter how unhappy we were." "And..." pushed Belinda, "hair? Eyes?" "Yes, he has both." Grinned Rebecca, enjoying tormenting her listeners. "He's blond, a sort of dirty blond. Mostly he wore it short and was clean shaven but after a couple of weeks leave… I suppose you'd say ruggedly handsome. His eyes are the most beautiful sapphire blue." She trailed away as memories of those blue eyes swamped her.

"After the separation became official, he asked me out. It was amazing, everything I'd imagined and more, caring, passionate, loving, treated me with respect, like an equal. Listened to my views and encouraged me to believe in myself." "A bit like Charles did for me." Murmured Molly. Nodding Rebecca continued, "I really fell for him… hard. I thought we had something. He was great with Sam and Sam loved him. Charles was happy for us. We didn't actually discuss the future; things just seemed to progress naturally." Molly noticed a change in her tone, a sort of sadness and wondered if she should change the subject but Belinda leaned over and put her arm around Rebecca. "What happened?" She asked quietly. "When the Decree Absolute came through we went out to celebrate. Charles was getting ready to leave for Afghanistan, the tour where he met you. He'd taken Sam for a last weekend. Stu was staying over. We came back and were relaxing with a bottle of wine when he told me he was being transferred up to Newcastle. He'd applied for promotion, for a Deputy Chief Constable role and hadn't told me. He wanted it to be a surprise he said, a fresh start for us. He expected me to just pack up everything a move to a strange town where we wouldn't know anyone." Tears had begun to trickle down her cheeks. "I couldn't do that to Sam. His dad was going away for six months, I couldn't take him away from his grandparents and aunt and uncle too. Stuart had no choice, he'd accepted the job, and he had to go. He couldn't understand or accept my decision. It didn't end well.""

Molly and Belinda looked at each other, unsure of what to say to comfort their friend. "You did what any mother would do love, you put your son first. He was a knob for not seeing that." Belinda assured her. "Do you still love him?" Molly felt compelled to ask after seeing Rebecca's emotions after telling them about the break up. Wiping her eyes and nose on her sleeve, Rebecca tried to smile, "I do, and I think I probably always have. Losing him hurt me so much more than losing Charles. What Charles and I had was friendship, there was no great passion but with Stuart, it was everything, he was everything. The break up came just a few months before Charles was shot. You were on the scene and I hated him for having what I didn't. He was happy with the chance of a future with a woman he loved, who obviously loved him. All I could see for my own future was loneliness. That was when I started volunteering at the charity shop and met Amira and Simon. I should have known better than to get involved.""

"You were vulnerable, at a low point. Believe me, I've been there. That's how I ended up in the bleedin' army." Chuckled Molly. "They took advantage of you. Nothing to do with you knowing better or not. They would have done anything to get into your trust. Anyway, you're out of that now. You're not married to the scum bag and don't have to go through another divorce. Charles says they're getting close so it shouldn't be long before he's locked up nice and tight like his wife." "So," said Belinda topping up their glasses again, letting the last few drops drip into Rebecca's, "forget all the crap with shitface. There's more important things like, what you gonna do about Mr tall blond and bloody gorgeous? Did Charles say he's still single?" "He didn't say but I can easily ask him. He did say he asked about you Rebecca so…"

They had moved on to plotting strategy to get Stuart and Rebecca back together, naming it Operation SOS, when there was a knock at the door making them all jump. "Fuck, it's nearly midnight. Who comes calling at nearly midnight?" Belinda was trying to get to her feet. "Bloody trouble, that's who. Mum, take Rebecca upstairs. Get Lucy and all go into the boy's room. Stay there until I tell you to come out. Don't open the door for anyone but me." She snatched up her mobile and was dialling Mansfield's number, he was on watch tonight, as she moved into the hallway with the other two women. As they reached the stairs there was another knock and a familiar voice called out, "Molly, open the bloody door, I'm getting soaked out here.

Yanking the door open, Molly didn't even wait for Charles to step in before punching him in the stomach with all her might, knocking the wind out of him. "You fucking cockwomble, you scared the crap out of us. What're you doing here anyway? I hope you weren't followed. Why didn't you phone?" Dragging him in and quickly closing and locking the door she stood with her hands on her hips waiting for his explanation. "We've got him. It's over. I wanted to tell you myself. I'm sorry, I didn't think. I just wanted to see you and the kids." His voice was breaking with emotion. "It's over Rebecca. He can't hurt you now. You're safe."

Rebecca sagged down on to the steps shaking, "You're sure? It's definitely him? What about the rest of his people?" She was struggling to get the words out. Belinda sat down next to her, gathering her in for a hug as she finally gave in to her emotions. Charles pulled Molly into his arms, kissing her in apology. "I'm sorry, forgive me. When we got the call, all I could think of was you. You are so brave and so strong. Stronger than me. I needed to be here." Putting her arms around his neck Molly clung to him, the adrenaline draining from her body. "What happened?" "Come and sit down, all of you, and I'll explain." "I think we might gonna need the gin." Muttered Belinda, helping Rebecca back into the sitting room. They were just settling down to listen when the sitting room door pushed open and a tousled head appeared. "What's going on? Charlie, what you doin' 'ere? Have you caught the bastard?" Catching Molly's eye he quickly added, "Don't panic. I've put her in the bottom bunk. Thought she'd never settle down but she's out for the count now."

Moving to sit on the other side of Rebecca, he reached for her other hand, "You alright Becky, love? I see the three of you finished off the Baileys." He grinned a Belinda. "So, what'd I miss? They've had me up there babysittin' while the three of 'em got pissed by the look of it. I don't know how you manage 'em Charlie. Mind you, you've got an eye for a looker, I'll give you that." His rambling had given Rebecca time to get control and she smiled at him gratefully as he gave her a wink.

"So…" said Molly, looking from Charles to the three on the sofa. "So, things just seemed to come to a head in the early hours of this morning. Martin had upped his phone calls and had finally started speaking, saying he knew Rebecca was in the house, that she belonged to him and he was coming for her. His rants were getting more and more irrational. Dino was certain he'd give his location away as his control on his temper slipped. He didn't verbally give it away but he stayed on the phone shouting threats and boasting for longer and Jackson got a trace. Sumner had contacted Elvis earlier with the news that Amira Metin and Jai Kahn had both been found dead in their cells, so we used it to provoke him and keep him talking. Once he'd got a location Elvis got back on to Sumner. We couldn't immediately go after him ourselves because the house was still being watched and we didn't want to alert them that something was happening." He laughed at the memory of Elvis and the lads waiting for the all clear to move. "Stuart Strong had a team of armed officers take down the watchers and it was all go. I don't mind admitting I was a bit pissed with Elvis when he decided I couldn't go with them."

Molly watched the emotions pass over his face. "Probably just as well. You'd have killed the bastard and we'd be spending the next ten years visiting you in prison."

Nodding in agreement he pulled her down from her perch on the arm of his chair into his lap, giving her a quick kiss. "Yeah, you're right. Anyway, Elvis and the lads, along with Strong and his team, raided a house in Southdown. It was in a street mostly used by students so no one questioned new people in to the area. There were five of them taken, including Martin. Elvis was happy to tell me Martin had tried to run and resisted arrest so 'sustained a few minor injuries'. It was Elvis and Stuart who took him down." He looked at Rebecca as he said this. Tears coursed down her face, occasionally being wiped away but mostly being left to freely flow.

"Are they okay? Stuart, Elvis and the lads? Was anyone hurt? I don't want anyone hurt because of me." "Don't be daft love, none of it's because of you. It's because of that nutbar. Anyway, it's their job. They probably enjoyed it if there was a bit of a scrap, eh Charlie." Dave looked across at Charles and Molly before turning back to Rebecca. " You just need to forget about the little scumbag now doesn't she Belinda." Belinda, who had been sitting quietly listening, suddenly perked up, giving Rebecca a dig in the ribs with her elbow. "Yeah, definitely. On to Operation SOS now. Go and put the kettle on Dave, we need to celebrate. You are stoppin' aren't you Charles?" Looking between the three giggling women he decided he was better off not asking what Operation SOS was so just nodded. "What happened to the two in prison? You said they were both found dead?" Rebecca asked quietly. "Nothing has been proven but a guard from each prison has been suspended. Looks like they were given some kind of poison. Sumner suspects Martin may be responsible, making sure they couldn't do any deals with regards himself."

As well as finding the men at the address in Southdown, they had also found large quantities of bomb making equipment and several more miniature drones. There were photographs of the house taken from front and back and the various members of the teams as they came and went. Thankfully there were no pictures of the children or Molly so presumably he hadn't been able to get access to them. Spunky and Dino had remained at the James' house as a precaution but they weren't expecting any repercussions. The three 2 Section lads had been informed and told to stand down so now he just had to take his family home, which he hoped to do in the morning. Instead of tea, Dave brought in a tray with three vodka and cokes and two bottles of beer. "You can't celebrate with tea. Cheers, here's to her Majesty's finest." Raising his bottle he toasted Charles, Elvis and all the men who had helped to catch Simon Martin.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs brought all their heads turning to the sitting room door. A very disgruntled Lucy stood, hands on hips and curls flopping over her face. "Gandad Dave, you bad. Me seep in top." She stamped her little foot for emphasis. Pinning Rebecca with a look, she demanded, "Betta, bed time, seep in top wif me." She demanded. Charles chuckled at the grumpy look on her face as she gave out orders. "She looks just like you." He whispered to Molly. It was at that point that Lucy spotted him, her eyes widening with joy. "Daddy! You's here!" Clambering up and over Molly who was still in his lap, she threw her arms around his neck, smacking sloppy kisses all over his face as if she hadn't seen him for months. "Me seepin' top Daddy, me bid dirl." Wriggling she managed to insert herself between Molly and Charles's chest, snuggling in. "Yes well, **this** big girl is going to bed. Looks like you're on the sofa Daddy." Laughed Molly getting to her feet followed by Belinda, Rebecca and Dave. "Come on moppet you should be in bed." Peeling Lucy from Charles, she bent and gave him a kiss, "I'll be back in a bit" she whispered with a grin and true to her word, half an hour later she crept back into the sitting room and snuggled up with her husband on the sofa.


	14. Chapter 14

**One Year On…**

Molly looked around the garden at the family and friends here to celebrate Lucy's third birthday. It was so different from last year. Then, the garden had been scorched and damaged from the explosion. Lucy's birthday had been spent in Italy instead of having a party at home. This year the ground was green and lush, the flowers were blooming and apart from the small holes in the side of the tree, all evidence of the incident was gone.

Max and Gina had arrived four weeks earlier, in time for the arrival of Bethany Gina James who, just like her brothers and sister was born with a head of dark brown curls and chocolate brown eyes and had had her entire family in the palm of her tiny hand since. They had stayed and taken over the day to day running of the house and the arrangements for the party, giving Molly time to recover and bond with her new little girl. Beth was currently being cuddled by Rebecca, her god mother. Molly smiled; there wouldn't be much room to cuddle on that lap for much longer. Rebecca had confided in her earlier that she was pregnant, her eyes bright with happiness, and the last of the fear gone from her life. Her fiancé sat by her side, one arm around her shoulders the other stroking Beth's curls. Stuart had been waiting on their return to Bath, ready to do whatever it took to help Rebecca regain her life in the hope that she would let him share it. Operation Seduce Our Stuart hadn't been needed after all. Her father, George sat on her other side. He had returned to the UK for the trial and had decided he needed to stay for a while to support Rebecca through her recovery.

Mansfield, Brains and Fingers were playing a very one sided game of football with Pip, Sam, Steven, and Martin. Belinda, Gina and Nan were in the kitchen putting the finishing touches to the buffet which had been laid out in the dining room. Unfortunately Jade, Paul and Bella were all away so only Lily had been able to come with the boys. Not that she minded, as she flirted with the five SF lads.

The feel of a body behind her and arms wrapping around her waist told her exactly where her husband was. "They look happy," he said indicating Rebecca and Stuart. "Becky's pregnant." She whispered, sharing her friend's news. "Must be catching. Elvis just told me Georgie's pregnant too." Elvis had finally managed to win back his former fiancé, the only woman he had ever truly loved. "Talking of Elvis and Georgie, where are they? I haven't seen them for a while." She leaned back against him, resting her head on his chest. "He said he and Georgie had a quick errand to run. All very mysterious." Molly continued to look around the garden as she snuggled in his arms. "I was just thinking how different this is to last year." "Don't even think about last year." He growled nuzzling in to her neck. Laughing, she turned fully in his arms. "I haven't seen the birthday girl and her granddads for a while either." "Not to worry, I'm sure they'll be up to mischief somewhere."

"By the way, Stu gave me some news too. Simon Martin died in prison last week. He heard this morning. It seems someone wanted him silenced. Possibly revenge for Amira and Jai." "Has he told Becky? She'll be so relieved. I know she was still frightened that he'd escape somehow." Rebecca had stayed with them for two months following their return from London. She had undergone counselling and was currently volunteering at a women's refuge and studying part time to become a counsellor herself. After talking it over with Molly, Charles had given her half the money from the sale of their old house to give her financial independence. When she eventually left the Crescent it was to move in with Stuart. At first she'd been reluctant, feeling she needed to be able to look after herself but Molly convinced her she could still do that and live with the man she loved.

After much discussion between Charles, Rebecca and Sam, it was decided that Sam would stay with Charles but he, Pip and Lucy would spend some weekends and school holidays with Rebecca and Stuart. It had been a perfect arrangement, especially when Molly fell pregnant. Molly had told them it was probably their fault she was pregnant, by giving them so much free time without the kids.

Elvis and Georgie appeared by their side, giggling and jostling each other. "What…" Molly began only to be distracted by the familiar rumble of wheels. A truck? No, it couldn't be. Lucy's truck had been destroyed in the explosion. She'd been inconsolable when she found out but had eventually learned to live without it. Now, Manny strode out into the garden, a big harness fastened around him, towing a bright yellow truck with shiny red wheels. Sitting in the truck bed was Lucy dressed as Jessie from Toy Story, her current favourite film. Molly started laughing and went to step forward but Elvis put out his arm and said, "Wait". Molly couldn't believe her eyes when Max and Dave followed dressed as Woody and Stinky Pete, respectively; Belinda dressed as Wheezy the penguin, Gina as Buzz Lightyear carrying the birthday cake and finally Nan as Bo Peep with a basket of birthday gifts. "The truck is from me and my team." Elvis told her.

Molly hugged him and Georgie before turning to Charles, "Did you know?" "Didn't have a Scooby." He laughed, thinking the Dave he had first met all those years ago would have suited the role of Stinky Pete. Now, not so much but he would do anything for Lucy. Bringing Manny to a stop, Max helped Lucy to stand up in the truck. Molly and Charles moved forward with the rest of the guests and sang 'Happy Birthday' to the beaming three year old as she blew out her candles. "I gotted a new tuck Mummy. I can take Beff and Kitty for walks." Molly groaned at the thought but hugged her little girl and agreed with her. "You're a big girl now and the best big sister."

Looking around all the smiling happy faces, Molly knew her family was going to be okay. They weren't just a family of eight though, they were a whole lot bigger and likely to grow even more if Charles had his way.

 _ **Thank you for sticking with it. I may try to sneak in a cheeky one shot for Christmas if I can find time.**_


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